The dealings behind the N-deal

WASHINGTON: Two influential panels of the US Congress overwhelmingly endorsed the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal last week and the surprising part was not the ease with which it got cleared but the price tag that came with it. 

 

According to analysts and experts it came with a heavy price tag and the combined lobbying efforts of business groups in both the countries that finally saw it sail smoothly through the legislature. Over the past six years, they said, the Confederation of Indian Industry, spent more than $1 million on fact-finding trips to India for US members of Congress, their staff, and spouses, and on lobbying Congress to pass a law that would fundamentally change India’s relationship with the United States, according to a report in the Boston Globe.

 

Supporters of the plan have consistently said it is a “win-win” proposal, increasing business ties with one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and strengthening nuclear safeguards in India at the same time. But critics say billion-dollar business interests, in the United States as well as India, have trumped the decades-old policy of trying to get India to give up its nuclear weapons programme. They point to the massive, behind-the-scenes lobbying effort by the CII and the US businesses as proof.

 

Foreign organisations and governments are allowed to lobby the US  government, but they must register with federal officials. President Bush backed the proposal as a way to allow India to buy civilian nuclear reactors from the West, to overcome its ever-growing energy needs without resorting to pollution-prone conventional power plants.

 

Bush administration officials say the deal also provides a host of strategic advantages, including building a lasting friendship with a rapidly growing democracy in Asia, as a check on China’s growing influence, and as a partner in fight against Islamic terrorism. However, it is the prospect of business opportunities worth billions of dollars that really helped fuel the deal, some analysts say. If the full Congress approves the plan, the deal would cement a historic new Indo-US alliance and open the doors to billions of dollars worth of high-tech and military sales to the South Asian nation.

 

 

One of the quietest and most persistent efforts to influence Congress on India policy has come from the CII. The group was among the top international organisations paying for Congressional travel between 2000 and 2005.

 

The business prospects have spurred the US-India Business Council, which represents 200 US businesses operating in India, to hire heavyweight lobbying firm Patton Boggs to work on the issue and hold strategy meetings about how to approach sceptics on Capitol Hill. Reports on the expenses of the American group's lobbying on India have not been filed.

 

 

Between 2000-2005, the CII paid for over $5,38,000 in expenses for trips by 19 Congress members, 11 spouses, and 58 Congressional staffers. Of the 50 members serving on the House International Relations Committee, eight went on India trips paid by the CII.

 

In April 2005, the confederation registered to lobby for the first time, paying lobbying firm, Barbour Griffith & Rogers, $5,20,000 to lobby US agencies, including the Congress, the White House, the State Department. Ambassador to India and deputy national security adviser, were hired by the firm to run the effort. In September 2005, the embassy of India also hired the firm, paying $2,40,000.

 

 

Lockheed Martin has a reasonable chance to get a $4 billion to $9 billion contract to supply 126 combat fighter planes to Indian Navy, a contract that India would not have approved while sanctions were in place.

 

Westinghouse, whose nuclear division is based in Western Pennsylvania, could help India build a civilian nuclear reactor, and Atlanta-based General Electric would be well-placed to get a contract to supply India's reactors with nuclear fuel.

 

For Indian entrepreneurs, it is an opportunity to make money on privatised nuclear power plants and buy high-tech equipment that has been restricted for decades.