Lobbying helped secure N-deal: Mulford

At a press conference, US Ambassador to India, David Mulford freely said last week that two influential ethnic groups helped secure the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.

"There's been a lot of lobbying "" as we call it "" where groups that have a point of view, express that interest, either by calling on members of Congress or sending letters or whatever..." Mulford said.

The American Indian community that has both Democrat and Republican contacts worked on both ends of the spectrum. The American Jewish community (a conglomeration of various Jewish lobbying groups) came out in open support of the deal.

Their support was important as they emphasised that the legislation was India-specific, amid fears in the American Right that if India was allowed nuclear commerce without signing the Non Proliferation Treaty, this could pave the way for others, he said.

It was the third group of people who helped the actual passage of the deal, Mulford said "" the visitors from Congress like John Kerry and Dan Burton who not only helped in crafting the legislation but also in coaxing it along.

What the US Ambassador did not say was how much this "coaxing" cost. However, independent investigation suggests much of it was spent on financing travel of US lawmakers to India to persuade them to vote for the deal by seeing for themselves how responsible the Indian administration was.

Some of it was paid for by the United States India Business Council (USIBC). But much of the tab for the lobbying was picked up by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) that registered as a lobbying organisation from 15 April to 30 September 2005 and spent $520,000 (just under Rs 3 crore) lobbying six federal agencies, the Congress and the Executive Office of the president during the five-month period according to the records.

The CII Director General SS Mehta could not be reached for his comments.

In the US, it is mandatory to file disclosures under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 with the United States Senate Office of Public Record. According to this, CII paid lobbying firm, Barbour Griffith & Rogers the sum of $520,000 to smoothen the path of the deal.

However, a lot of lobbying activity was undertaken by CII even before it registered itself. According to the Centre for Public Integrity, a Washington-based think tank, half a million dollars were spent on Congressional travel from January 2000 till mid-April 2005 when CII registered itself as a lobbying organisation.

$538,000 were paid to cover travel expenses for trips by 19 Congress members, 11 spouses, and 58 Congressional staffers, according to the records. Of the 50 members serving on the House International Relations Committee, the trips of eight were paid for by CII. One of the eight representatives, Barbara Lee, a California democrat, voted against the proposal.

CII was not the only one that lobbied for the deal. Through 2005, Nasscom spent $100,000 on lobbying for technology and immigration issues of interest to the Indian software industry through the firm Hill and Knowlton.

More and more Indian firms doing business in the US and India seem to be hiring lobbyists to influence decisions taken by the administration.

Not only has Nasscom shifted to Barbour Griffith & Rogers this year (they registered to act as Nasscom's lobbyists on 15 April this year) but unknown firms also are hiring lobbyists.

Hyderabad-based KMC Constructions (whose primary interest is highway construction) spent less than $10,000 to hire Patton Boggs LLP to take up issues regarding international business regulations. EK Garments, an Indian firm also hired lobbyists to influence textile sales.

Larsen and Toubro paid $360,000 to the Carmen Group to lobby on construction issues. All these firms were hired in 2005.