On the 30th of July 2024, OpIndia published an investigative report about the Indian Overseas Congress Chairman Sam Pitroda and his dubious NGO, Global Knowledge Initiative, which gets funds from the US State Department, USAID, and the Rockefeller Foundation. The NGO was co-founded by Sam Pitroda, a current VP of the Rockefeller Foundation and a former advisor to the US government. Detailing these links, the OpIndia report had questioned whether the Congress is in cahoots with the USA Deep State – since their IOC Chairman, who organizes the foreign trips where Rahul Gandhi demands foreign intervention into India, was running an NGO funded by entities widely accepted as regime change operators.
A day after the report was published, Congress leader Praveen Chakravarty took to Twitter (now X) to threaten OpIndia.
This is totally false & an utter lie. There were no “secret” White House meetings.
— Praveen Chakravarty (@pravchak) July 31, 2024
I was with Mr.Gandhi on every day of this trip
This fake news about the Leader of the Opposition can impact bilateral relationship, is against India’s national interests & a prosecutable offence. https://t.co/uEfDW33Oje
Praveen Chakravarty claimed that the news about the “secret” White House meeting was a total lie. Somehow, Chakravarty imagined that such news would hurt the “bilateral relationship” and is against India’s national interest. He further claimed that such news is a “prosecutable offense”.
Chakravarty, of course, did not tell us what section he would like to prosecute us under. Neither did he tell us how a news report based on publicly available information is a hazard to national security and could potentially hurt the bilateral relationship between India and the US.
What did become very apparent right at the outset was that he had not denied any of the other links mentioned in the report. He had not taken umbrage with questions of Sam Pitroda and Rahul Gandhi’s ties to the US Deep State, neither had he denied Pitroda’s NGO being hands in glove with the US State Department, USAID, or the Rockefeller Foundation.
Further, he contested that a “secret” meeting had taken place. One has to wonder if he means that since he was accompanying Rahul Gandhi and since it was widely reported in the media, it no longer remained a “secret”.
Either way, it becomes important to get into some facts and how, it was Praveen Chakravarty himself who had provided evidence of Congress being on cahoots with the US Deep State.
What was the source of the news about Rahul Gandhi’s secret meeting with White House officials?
The source of the news that Rahul Gandhi had clandestine meetings during his Washington trip in 2023 was an Economic Times report written by journalist Seema Sirohi. Sirohi is enchanted by Rahul Gandhi and had rained effusive praise on the Congress leader, while as a side story, reporting that Rahul Gandhi had these White House meetings which both parties involved – the Biden administration and Congress – had chosen to keep under wraps.
The news at the time was source-based. In her report, Sirohi did not reveal how she got this information. This was actually peddled as a net positive for Rahul Gandhi – that he was being taken seriously by the Biden Administration.
The news had expectedly invited the attention of those politically opposed to Rahul Gandhi and even the BJP. Several reports and columns were written about the ramifications of Rahul Gandhi meeting the Biden administration. There was, of course, no official denial from Congress either.
Sirohi had appeared on the Barkha Dutt YouTube show and confirmed her story. She said the visit had gone very well.
Once the opinion pieces, news reports, and comments started flowing in, Congress trolls started abusing Seema Sirohi, despite her effusive praise for Rahul Gandhi.
After the trolling and abuse, Sirohi decided to reveal her source.
Taking to Twitter, Seema had confirmed that it was indeed Praveen Chakravarty himself who was the source of this information. Keep in mind, that while threatening OpIndia, Praveen had admitted that he was with Rahul Gandhi throughout the trip.
After a couple of days of abuse from Congress supporters, I thought I would reveal my "source." Here he is on the record to PTI. Data chief Praveen Chakrabarti told PTI… "we met some people in the White House…" Story published June 3,2023 https://t.co/TGNRu5lAS0 https://t.co/ZbbXHikLpg
— Seema Sirohi (@seemasirohi) June 9, 2023
Sirohi had taken to Twitter on the 10th of June, an entire week after Praveen Chakravarty had made these comments.
On the 3rd of June 2023, Praveen Chakravarty spoke to PTI and confirmed that Rahul Gandhi had indeed met officials from the White House, and the Biden administration.
Here is the excerpt from the Times of India report (Archive Link):
“…There were some meetings with people from the administration. Those were very cordial meetings. And really the larger purpose is to highlight the importance of the India-US relationship, the need to broad base the relationship. And there have been questions about Ukraine and India’s stand in Ukraine, and Gandhi has made it very categorically clear, both in private and in public, that he fully supports the Government of India’s stand on Ukraine’s war situation,” Praveen Chakrabarty, chairman of the Data Analytics department of the Congress Party told PTI.
Chakrabarty, who is accompanying Gandhi during his US visit, refrained from giving any further details of those meetings.
“Without getting into the details of what transpired in those meetings… We met students at universities, we met faculty at these universities. We met technology executives in Silicon Valley. We met the media leadership of America. We met think tanks, academics and scholars. We met some people from the White House. We met some people from the (Biden) administration,” he said.
In fact, in his interaction with the PTI, he even hinted that Indian democracy was a talking point during his US trip.
The TOI report said:
“The second big message is, in his words, Indian democracy is a global public good, which means making sure Indian democracy is robust and strong, helps the world at large, and certainly the United States. And the importance of Indian democracy is the second message,” he said.
When Rahul Gandhi, in the US, during his ‘secret meeting’ with Biden Administration officials says that “Making sure Indian Democracy is robust and strong helps the world at large”, one can extrapolate what that conversation was.
Praveen Chakravarty could perhaps lie to defend this and claim that the conversation around “Indian Democracy” only took place with other individuals that Rahul Gandhi met and not with the White House officials, however, that would be unbelievable, given that Rahul Gandhi has demanded US intervention every time.
In 2021, Rahul Gandhi asked for US interference during an online interaction with Ambassador Nicholas Burns of the Harvard Kennedy School. The Gandhi scion was invited by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics to talk about challenges and opportunities in India and reflections on politics and public service. Nicholas Burns is a former American ambassador to Greece, and currently a Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Rahul Gandhi had said, “I don’t hear anything from the US establishment about what is happening in India. If you are saying partnership in democracy is, I mean, what’s your view on what is happening here?” Rahul Gandhi also added, “I fundamentally believe, that America is a profound idea. The idea of freedom, the way it is encapsulated in your constitution is a very powerful idea. But you got to defend that idea. And that’s the real question.” However, Nicholas Burns didn’t respond to this specifically, only saying that when they will hold the next session in two weeks with another guest from India, they will discuss these matters.
It is not really speculation that when Praveen Chakravarty says Rahul Gandhi spoke about “making sure Indian democracy is robust and strong” and “how that helps the world at large”, what the conversation with the Biden administration officials possibly was. If Rahul Gandhi had not, in fact, asked for foreign interference in India when he met with White House officials, then it is on Congress and also Praveen Chakravarty to reveal what the conversation between Rahul Gandhi and the Biden Administration officials was.
In fact, after the US trip, Praveen Chakravarty confirmed that Rahul had discussed Indian democracy, however, before the trip, he had lied and claimed that Indian democracy was not on the agenda for Rahul Gandhi.
After the expected questions and backlash against Congress, Seema Sirohi tweeted that Praveen Chakravarty had changed his mind – a whole 1 week after he gave the statements to PTI – and said that there was no White House meeting.
Chakrabarty changed his mind a couple of days later and told The News Minute editor, oh no, there was no White House meeting. Listen from 14 minutes on where he forgets what he told PTI earlier. So what is the truth? Will the party data chief explain. https://t.co/Az6tkcV3fQ
— Seema Sirohi (@seemasirohi) June 9, 2023
However, even while denying the White House meeting, Praveen in the interaction with The News Minute admits that Rahul Gandhi met Senators and Government officials during his USA trip.
Therefore, it would appear that the only information that Praveen is contesting is that Rahul Gandhi visited the White House – not the fact that he met with govt officials from the Biden administration and also, spoke about “preserving democracy” in India – which we know the meaning of – given that Rahul Gandhi has made similar statements multiple times in the past.
It is pretty evident, therefore, that Praveen Chakravarty is either a pathological liar or Congress has a lot to hide and Praveen Chakravarty is failing to keep his story straight.
Several questions emerge from this information. Firstly, why did Praveen Chakravarty tell Seema Sirohi that Rahul Gandhi went to the White House for a secret meeting and then backtrack, a full week after these statements were made? Secondly, in the PTI interaction, Praveen confirms these clandestine meetings and also refuses to divulge the subject of these meetings – why would Praveen or the Congress party, not reveal the subject of the discussions with the Biden administration? Further, even if one were to accept the retraction, Praveen continues to confirm that Rahul Gandhi met Government Officials during his trip to the US in 2023 and spoke about “preserving democracy” – should Congress not come clean about what the discussions actually were?
One would imagine that Congress would never provide answers to these questions – because they would then have to confront the uncomfortable questions about the ever-mounting evidence of their suspected links with the US deep state and regime change operators.
