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Speaking to ANI, Qureshi said the sole purpose of the MoU, signed just 13 days before his retirement, was to strengthen training programs for election officials from other countries and did not involve any financial commitment from the Election Commission. Qureshi said, "When Donald Trump came for a second term, he created a department to cut government spending and made Elon Musk its head. The spending cuts also included funding given to USAID, which helps an organization called the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), with which I had signed an MoU just 13 days before my retirement."

What was the purpose of the agreement?

Explaining the objective of the agreement, he said that the Election Commission had set up the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIDEM) to train not only Indian election officials, but also election commissioners and senior officials of other countries. He said, "We said we would give them training for free, but we had no resources to bring them to India or bear their living expenses. IFES agreed to bring those participants and bear those expenses. Second, they would provide technical assistance to adapt the training programs as per the electoral laws and systems of different countries. That was the whole purpose of the MoU."

Qureshi stressed that the agreement clearly ruled out any financial or legal obligations. He said, "In that five-page MoU, it was very clearly written that it would have no financial or legal ramifications. In fact, I wrote it twice in the same document. If people had read the MoU, they would have seen that it had no financial or legal ramifications."

'If the MoU was wrong then governments would have ended it'

The former CEC further said that this agreement remained in force even after his retirement and was also supported by subsequent governments. Qureshi said, "If this MoU was unfair, the government could have scrapped it after I retired. Instead, it has continued. The current government and the Prime Minister have strongly supported IIDEM. When I was there, around 10 to 20 countries took the training. Today representatives from 143 countries have been trained. It is a matter of national honor and prestige, and unfortunately, the same has been questioned." (ANI)