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Opposition parties have started targeting the government over a news published in the media regarding the 'phone call' this year between Indian officials and senior White House officials.
The Indian Express report claims that 'American lobbying firm SHW Partners LLC had arranged for several phone calls between the White House and Indian officials in May-June this year.'
On this, opposition leaders targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that now India needs a lobbying firm to talk to US President Donald Trump.
However, the Fact Check team of the Ministry of External Affairs has refuted the social media post of a journalist on this issue, calling it misleading.
Controversy
Image source, ANI
Senior journalist Seema Chishti, while sharing this report on
Tagging this post, the fact check handle of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said on X that it was misleading.
It read, "It is a common practice for embassies and other institutions in the US to hire lobbying firms. The Indian Embassy in Washington DC has been hiring the services of such firms since 1948. The information related to this is publicly available. Also, the FARA filing of Mercury Public Affairs LLC clearly mentions that it had only disseminated the related post."
Suhasini Haider, senior journalist with The Hindu, shared the fact check handle of the External Affairs Ministry and wrote, "How misleading is this, is it normal to arrange talks with the White House through a lobby firm?"
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"All the former diplomats say that lobby firms generally help with operations and contacts on (Capitol) Hill, while negotiations on matters related to bilateral relations take place at the level of government officials."
Senior journalist Sushant Singh termed this fact check as misleading.
What did the opposition leaders say?
Leaders of opposition parties have raised questions against the government by making this report an issue.
TMC MP (Mamata faction) Mahua Moitra said, "The truth has come out. When Donald Trump tweets good things about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is because we, the Indian taxpayers, have paid an American lobbying firm for this!"
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pawan Kheda wrote on Twitter, "The situation has become so bad that Modi needs a lobbying firm even to talk to his 'friend, Donald Trump'."
"But the real thing is that every time Trump describes Modi as his 'very good friend', 'true friend', 'good friend' or 'great friend', there is a price to be paid for it. And Modi pays this price by paying lobbying firms with Indian taxpayers' money.
What is the whole matter?
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Indian Express has published a report. It said that SHW Partners LLC has said in the document filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of America that it arranged eight phone calls between senior officials of the Indian government and the White House during May-June this year.
The head of this American lobbying firm is Jason Miller.
The report said that these conversations were focused on India-US relations and the firm described them as part of "political activities".
According to the report, India had signed a contract with Jason Miller's SHW Partners LLC till April 2025, which was extended for another year in April this year.
However, this contract expired on June 23 as Jason Miller joined the Trump administration as a special government employee.
This report claims that before Marco Rubio's visit to India in May, a phone conversation was conducted between several senior officials of the Indian government and the White House.
These included US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, Deputy National Security Advisor Michael Needham and Under Secretary of State for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Jean Lange.
Subsequently, the report mentions more high-level contacts between the Indian government and the US administration after Marco Rubio's visit to India in June.
According to the Indian Express report, after Donald Trump was re-elected as President, the Indian Embassy in Washington DC took the services of two major lobbying firms, which were headed by people considered close to Trump.
The second firm among these was Mercury Public Affairs, which was kept on a retainership of $75,000 per month.
The firm's core team included Brian Lanza, who had been communications director on Trump's transition team.
Published by Collective Newsroom for the BBC.
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