'Credibility well established globally': MEA on Trump's praise for CEC Gyanesh Kumar

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) affirmed on Tuesday that India's electoral system and its credibility are globally recognized, following US President Donald Trump's praise for the country's electoral process. In a media briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal declined to comment on Trump's remarks but emphasized the established global credibility of India's election machinery.

Trump had invoked India's electoral system while advocating for the SAVE America Act, a proposed legislation in the US Congress seeking stricter voter identification and citizenship requirements for federal elections. During a post on Truth Social, Trump questioned the feasibility of conducting US elections without mandatory photo identification, drawing a comparison to India's voting system.

He highlighted the scale of India's elections, noting that India had 646 million voters, with less than 1% voting by mail and every voter required a valid photo identity document. Trump urged lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act, which aims to require documentary proof of US citizenship for federal election registration and valid identification during voting, along with stricter restrictions on mail-in voting and the removal of non-citizens from federal voter rolls.

The US administration has cited India and Brazil as examples for implementing stronger voter identification safeguards, noting that these countries link voter identification to biometric databases, unlike the US, which primarily relies on self-attestation of citizenship.