US State Department targeting India

NEW DELHI, Dec 06 (Reuters): Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the State Department and "deep state" elements in the US of trying to destabilise India in conjunction with a group of investigative journalists and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.
The accusation comes as a surprise as New Delhi and Washington have forged a strong relationship in the last two decades and both have vowed to further strengthen ties despite some differences and irritants.
Gandhi's Congress party used the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)'s articles that "singularly focused" on the Adani Group and its alleged closeness to the government to undermine Modi, the ruling party said on Thursday.
Group chair Gautam Adani and seven others were indicted last month in the US for being part of a $265 billion scheme to bribe Indian officials - allegations the group has termed "baseless".
OCCRP's articles have also accused state-sponsored hackers in India of using Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to target government critics. The government has previously denied both allegations. The BJP has previously accused Gandhi, the OCCRP and 92-year-old billionaire financier-philanthropist George Soros of attacking Modi.
On Thursday, it cited a French media report that said that OCCRP was funded by the US Agency for International Development and "other deep state figures" like Soros.