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India hires another

lobbyist with strong

Republican connections

WASHINGTON: Still smarting over crushing defeat in their gruelling battle to block Brown Amendment in the Republican-controlled Congress, the Indian Embassy in Washington has hired second lobbyists with strong Republican connections.

The Embassy has added Wayne Berman and Peter Terpeluk to supplement its other Washington representatives, the firm 'Raffaelli, Spees, Springer and Smith'. The latter group is welll-connected in Democratic circles.

Wayne Berman, a well-know fund-raiser, has been given a 3-month dollars 40,000 contract by the Indian Embassy to help Indian diplomats woo the Republican support on the Capital Hill.

Breman and Terpeluk who operate through a lobbyist firm, 'American Continental Group', worked with President Reagan and Bush. The group has a long list of clients from financial and banking sectors.

Terpeluk was Bush's campaign finance chairman. Breman is particularly close to Senator Alfonse M D Amato of New York who has been a strong supporter of Bob Dole and is Chairman of Senate Banking Committee that has carried out probe on the White Water scandal in which President Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton's name also figures. D'Amato voted against the Brown Amendment and has recently been active in blocking the shipment of embargoed arms to Pakistan as provided in the amendement.

Nomination of a second lobbyist was one of the last acts of former Indian ambassador Sidharta Shankar Ray who waged a vicious struggle to defeat the Brown Amendment without success. Indian press blamed Ray for being outmanoeuvered by the Pakistan Embassy in Washington in the battle for soliciting support both from the Clinton Administration and at the Capitol Hill.

Indians believe that one reason of their defeat on the Brown Amendment was that they were not wired enough into the Republican network on the Hill. Of the 45 votes which went against the amendment in the Senate, thirtyfive were Democrats and ten Republicans including Larry Pressler and D'Amato. Dole played a key role in lining up support for the amendment moved by his fellow Republican Hank Brown with strong backing from the Clinton Administration.-APP