Congress leader Jairam Ramesh
Credit: PTI photo
New Delhi: Congress on Thursday alleged that the RSS has "betrayed national interest" and is a "pseudo-nationalist" organisation following reports that the Sangh fountainhead had engaged a lobbying firm in the United States.
General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat a few days ago had acknowledged that the organisation is not a registered organisation and that it does not pay taxes.
"Now, we learn that the RSS has spent a significant amount of money to engage one of Pakistan’s official lobbying arms -- the American law firm Squire Patton Boggs (SPB) -- to espouse its interests in the US," he posted on 'X'.
"This is hardly the first time that the RSS - with its long tradition of betraying the freedom movement, opposing Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Ambedkar, and attacking the Constitution and the national flag of India - has betrayed national interest. It is a pseudo-nationalist outfit," he added.
Reports claimed that RSS paid the lobbying firm USD 3.30 lakh between January and September this year. The firm had registered as a lobbying firm for RSS on January 16 this year to lobby officials in the US Senate and House of Representatives.
In the lobbying registration form, Squire Patton Boggs has listed Bradford Ellison, Ludmilla Kasulke, Bill Shuster and Rebekah Sungala as the individuals who would be acting as lobbyists for the RSS. It has marked "US-India bilateral relations" as the "specific lobbying issues (current and anticipated)."
In the January-March quarter, USD 1.2 lakh was given as lobbying charges while it was USD one lakh in April-June quarter and USD 1.1 lakh in July-September quarter.
The lobbying registration document also lists one Vivek Sharma as “an entity other than the client that contributes more than USD 5,000 to the lobbying activities in a quarterly period and either participates in and/or in whole or in major part supervises or controls the registrant’s lobbying activities."