Tremors in Washington and aftershocks in Delhi

DOGE's dismantling of the American State has significant costs for the US and will resonate beyond national borders. India too should brace for the impact

- Milan Vaishnav

Donald Trump has been US president for scarcely one month, but one can be excused for feeling as if it's been a year — or even a lifetime. The deluge from Washington has been fast and furious. On foreign policy, Trump has signaled a new era of American "manifest destiny", in which territorial expansion is the ultimate objective. Economically, Trump 2.0 has transformed America's growing nativist inclinations into a national obsession. On the domestic front, Trump has sought to redefine birthright citizenship, declare English as the US's official language, and eliminate "transsexual" identity.

These changes cover only the most headline-grabbing of Trump's early moves. But arguably no initiative has been as bold, controversial, or disruptive as the Elon Musk-helmed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In a cunning display of bureaucratic maneuvering, Musk and his allies commandeered the United States Digital Service (USDS) — an executive branch unit which provides information technology consulting services to federal agencies — allowing them to burrow into sensitive personnel and payment systems.

DOGE — advertised as a strike force targeting wasteful spending, streamlining government regulation, and extracting cost savings for taxpayers — has attracted many admirers in India. Hardly a day goes by without a columnist wistfully lamenting that India lacks a DOGE counterpart. India, like the US, could certainly use a bureaucratic upgrade. The recent past is littered with thoughtful blueprints for rewiring the operations of the Indian State, from the 2002 report of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution to the 15 volumes of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission. But Indian reformers should not conflate their desire to eliminate the vestiges of the Licence Raj with DOGE's bureaucratic machinations.