India rewards faithful supporter Blackwill in US

Staff Report

WASHINGTON: One of India’s leading backers in Washington has been rewarded with a lucrative contract to help get the Indo-US nuclear deal pass through Congress.

Robert Blackwill, who as US ambassador to India let few occasions slip by without taking potshots at Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of backing terrorism in Kashmir and offering refuge to elements such as the Taliban, will be selling to Congress and the media the nuclear deal announced when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Washington.

Barbour, Griffith and Rogers, a lobbying firm that the former ambassador now heads, will be paid a large amount of money, but no figure has been so far disclosed. Once the contract is registered with the Department of Justice, the amount being paid out to the company will become public knowledge. The negotiations between the Indian government and the lobbying firm are complete and all that remains to be accomplished is the signing of the contract.

The company describes itself as one with a proactive, creative approach to solving problems and has strong links in the White House and the Republican party. In the last 10 years, the company has become one of the most successful and profitable lobbying outfits in Washington.

An Indian embassy official told the India Abroad paper that Blackwill had not influenced the decision, explaining that under service rules he is banned from lobbying activity for a period of one year starting with his departure date from government service. The executive of a rival company was sceptical. “Maybe not officially, but unofficially there is no doubt that he was pushing it. The only reason that Barbour Griffith took him on as president was because they expected him to deliver the India account.” The last lobbying firms engaged by India – Verner Liipfert and Akin Gump – were paid $600,000 a year. The fee to be paid to Blackwill’s firm is likely to be much higher.

Earlier, the Indian ambassador, Ronen Sen, had bragged, “I don’t need door-opening. I can just pick up the phone and talk to them (senators and congressmen).” The man who is said to have pushed the contract into Blackwill’s lap is the Indian Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran, who convinced his minister that Blackwill was their man.

The former US ambassador to New Delhi is known for referring to India in his speeches as “Mother India,” something that few if any Indians would do without going red in the face. He has also been advocating a permanent seat for India on the UN Security Council. It is said that it was Blackwill who, through his one-time protégée Condoleezza Rice, convinced President Bush about signing the nuclear deal with India, a deal that many in the administration and the think tank and intelligence communities were and continue to be opposed to.

Blackwill’s last official duty at the White House was representing the president at a Diwali function for the Indian-American community. It was at the same function that he triumphantly declared that Pakistan would not be supplied with the F16 aircraft, words that he had to eat later when it was announced by the Bush administration that Pakistan would be sold the coveted aircraft.

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