By Ruma Dubey

Mr.Sharma’s neighbor is the principal of the school in his area. They are acquaintances, not buddy pals. But now Mr.Sharma’s son is getting ready for school and he needs an admission in the very same school. Well, Mr.Sharma is now trying to breach the level of relationship from mere acquaintance to pals. He now does not miss a single opportunity to strike a conversation or do some favor, like changing the light bulb in the lobby though it is his neighbor’s turn to do so.  Now what do we call this?

On a bigger level, industrialists meet up with ministers, make just a “courtesy call” and try to strike a good relationship with the ministries. But in both the cases – it is lobbying. Mr.Sharma was doing it blatantly, kowtowing so that his son gets an admission based on the “deeper” relationship that he develops. While industrialists meeting ministers is also lobbying. Both are harmless and in a way, a form of Public Relationship. But the same lobbying gets ugly when money gets involved or favors are traded. That is when lobbying becomes bribing, painting the whole deal in a sinister hue.

There is a very thin line between lobbying and bribing.  The dictionary says that lobby is “seek to influence (a legislator) on an issue”. It is also “a hall, foyer, or waiting room at or near the entrance to a building, such as a hotel or theater.” On the other hand, a bribe is “Something, such as money or a favour, offered or given to a person in a position of trust to influence that person’s views or conduct”. In both the definitions, the commonality is the act of influencing a view/behavior.

Interestingly, the word “lobbying” was coined way back in the 17^th century, when people gathered in the lobby of the England’s House of Commons to express their views to the Parliament members.

In USA, lobbying is legally recognized. Their law for lobbying, named, ‘The Lobbying Disclosure Act, 1995,’ mandates registration of lobby firms and one also needs to file amount spent for lobbying and the exact purpose of the expenditure. So the US does recognize the fact that lobbying involves exchange of money but do not label it as bribe, merely call it “expenditure” but by mandating companies to put this on money, US thinks it has ushered in transparency and done away with corruption. Is that really so easy? It also become apparent that the lines differentiating bribe and lobbying is very blurred – one does not know where one ends and where the other begins.

We all lobby for one thing or the other in our own lives – for a promotion, for getting the right guy for your daughter, for better quality of service, with your children’s teachers, with your relatives; one way or the other, we all do lobby. But we know where to draw the line and not cross over from lobbying to bribing for favors. Similarly, industrialists also know where morality begins and where lobbying ends as long as the inner barometer of integrity functions. And lobbying will mean expenditure, which is what US recognizes. For us in India, lobbying is not even recognized as a profession, forget it getting an legal status. And giving our enviable ability to find loophole in ever law and twisting it to our advantage, an Lobbying law might not really work for us. But yes, we could see some form of accountability, at least half of what is being spent on lobbying will get accounted officially.

Interestingly, our very own Indian Govt had hired a lobbying company - Barbour Griffith & Rogers LLC (BGR) and since the time it began lobbying in the US in 2005 till first quarter of previous fiscal, it had spent close to US$5 million. On behalf of India, BGR has lobbied at the US Senate, the House of Representatives, US Trade Representative (USTR), Department of State and Department of Commerce in the area of Indo-US bilateral relations, while its lobbying issues in the past have included the US-India civil nuclear deal.

Nasscom also lobbies in and so do TCS and Wirpo, who have lobbied for years to ease immigration laws for techies, increasing H1B quotas. In fact the latest news doing the rounds is that Nasscom spent around Rs.28 crore on lobbying for H1B visa’s in 2016, the highest amount spent till date.  Nasscom is said to use the services of US lobbying firm Hill and Knowlton.

When the Wal Mart lobbying in India issue boiled over, the US House of Representatives had sent out a list of 27 Indian companies listed who have spent millions in lobbying in the US for issues ranging from visa to exploring defence market. Names included Reliance Industries, Wipro, Sterling Bio, Tata Sons and Jewellery Export Promotion Council among others.

Lobbying is today a necessity, a part of life. What the PM is doing today is a subtle form of lobbying – the deals struck in China did not come out of thin air. Or what are the FIIs doing? Given their clout in the Indian markets, it was carefully crafted lobbying which pushed the Govt to take a decision on MAT – it froze all pending and prospective action by the IT authorities until a high-level committee formed to adjudicate the dispute, submits its report. And foreign companies are spending crores in India to influence policy decisions. Right from the debate on prime time TV to articles we read in the print media in support of foreign companies, most is supported with lobbying money. There is also a lot of money spent in academic research by lobbyists, which in turn is used to influence decision making.

Thus lobbying is a sophisticated form of PR exercise and it exists. We should stop being an ostrich and accept this truth. Maybe it’s time to get lobbyists to legalise this profession in India?