George Soros is among the most reviled foreign names in Indian political discourse today. BJP leaders have called him an “enemy of India” and an “economic war criminal”. They have marched through Parliament’s premises waving placards linking the Congress party to Soros. Central investigative agencies have raided civil society organisations that received funding from his Open Society Foundations (OSF). The message from the governing party has been consistent and loud: Soros represents dangerous foreign interference in India’s affairs.

Which makes what Newslaundry found in US corporate filings and Cayman Islands Registry records rather awkward.

The daughter of Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri co-founded a hedge fund that was selected by Soros Fund Management LLC – the principal asset manager for OSF itself – to manage funds to the tune of $200 million. This happened years before the BJP’s anti-Soros campaign began, and neither Puri, his party, nor his daughter have ever publicly disclosed the connection. In March, when Rahul Gandhi attempted to present documents about this in the Lok Sabha, his speech was cut short by the Speaker amid protests from treasury benches. The matter has not been addressed by Puri or the BJP since.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on anyone’s part. Business relationships of this kind are common in the financial world, and this one predates the BJP’s campaign against Soros. But the silence around it, from a party that has made Soros a political lightning rod, is striking.

The BJP’s war on Soros

The BJP government’s institutional campaign against Soros-linked organisations ostensibly began in 2015, when the Ministry of Home Affairs placed OSF on a “prior reference” watchlist. Any fund transfer from OSF to Indian NGOs would now require ministry clearance before disbursement. OSF noted that since mid-2016, its grant-making in India had been “constrained by government restrictions,” and challenged the order in the Delhi High Court.

What followed was years of pressure on organisations that had received OSF funding.