By Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is in for yet another major political row over the Indo-US nuclear deal. It has surfaced that a former US ambassador to India, who has been engaged as a star lobbyist to influence US lawmakers, is also on the payroll of two American firms to acquire fat defence orders for them from the Indian government.
The link that has emerged between the 123 Agreement signed in July and a multi-billion dollar fighter aircraft contract floated soon thereafter may become a major embarrassment for the government in power — Robert Blackwill, US ambassador to India during the previous governmentt’s tenure, happens to be associated with both. Legal experts here are surprised that the government has hired a lobbyist in Washington who works for the arms dealers. Blackwill’s firm, Barbour Griffith & Rogers, was hired by India in 2007 on a contract worth over $1.2 million, which has been renewed for 2008. More on the story.
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