Indian American lobbying groups fail to make its mark

The Indian American Task Force,which claims to represent the 2.5 million Indian Americans living in the US,had organised “Washington Chalo” this year and subsequently has been making rounds of the Capitol trying to convince the US lawmakers to give conditional aid to Pakistan.

Their main purpose under the Obama Administration was to include tougher provisions and conditions in the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act which triples US democratic,economic,and social development assistance to USD 1.5 billion to Pakistan in the next five years.

Initially,they were able to get some tougher provisions included in the House version of the Bill; which included and had specific reference of Pakistani soil not to be used for launching terrorist attacks against India.

This was opposed by the Obama Administration as the Secretary of Defence wrote to the top Congressional leaders against such tougher provisions in the bill.

Congressional watchers today said the bill passed by the House of Representative and the Senate is much softer in imposing conditions on Pakistan than the one which was initially introduced in the US Congress.

The influential Indian American lobbying groups,which were instrumental behind the passage of the Indo-US nuclear deal,ended up in a flop show at least this time. None of their views were favourably considered by the US Congress.

Excepting a few,it also could not gather the support of lawmakers to push forward its agenda. Consequently,while the bill in the Senate was passed unanimously,the House of Representatives passed it through a voice vote.

Congressional observers say that the Indian American lobbying groups have a long way to go and are in nascent stages as compared to other lobbying groups.

Unlike the nuclear deal,these groups did not have the backing of either the administration or other powerful business groups this time. Not even a single demand of the Indian American Task Force was taken into consideration during the passage of the latest bill.

In a dossier submitted to US lawmakers,the Indian American Task Force had demanded that all economic and military aid to Pakistan be subject to verifiable evidence that it has dismantled all terrorist camps existing on its soil; arrest and prosecute all masterminds of the terrorist organisations.

The final bill passed by the US Congress only seeks a certification,which can be waived off by the US President that progress is being made by Pakistan in its action against terrorism.

According to The Cable,the online news of the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine,the Pakistan bill tweaks the language governing oversight of funds that would assist Pakistan’s military.

The previous version conditioned the release of military assistance on the President’s certification that the Pakistani government “demonstrated a sustained commitment to and made progress towards combating terrorist groups.”

The final version states that the President has to certify that Pakistan is “making significant efforts towards combating terrorist groups … including taking into account the extent to which the Government of Pakistan has made progress on matters” related to counter-terrorism.

Also,the compromise version doesn’t actually say how much Pakistan military assistance is to be given,using the language “such sums as are necessary”,it said.