Washington : Squire Patton Boggs, a Washington DC based mostly lobbying agency that gained consideration in 2025 following stories that it was employed to foyer for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in America, has disclosed that it has since ceased lobbying for the organisation, the ideological fount of the Bharatiya Janata Celebration. The agency, which was paid $330,000 in 2025, additionally amended earlier disclosures made with the US Congress to replicate that it was employed by a person named Vivek Sharma (and never the RSS) to unfold larger consciousness in regards to the RSS in Washington. Earlier disclosures explicitly said that Squire Patton Boggs was employed by State Road Methods on behalf of the RSS. To make sure, even again then, the RSS denied that it had engaged any lobbying agency in America.
In a lobbying disclosure made on December 29, however which hasn’t been reported, Squire Patton Boggs outlined that its contract — the agency’s purpose was to “introduce the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to US officers”– was terminated on September 30, 2025. The elite lobbying agency was employed by State Road Methods, which additionally does enterprise underneath the identify One+ Methods, and registered to foyer for the RSS in January 2025. Former Republican Congressman Invoice Shuster was a key lobbyist related to the contract.
In November, information outlet Prism reported that Squire Patton Boggs explicitly said in lobbying disclosures that it was employed by State Road Methods performing “on behalf of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh”. These disclosures have been subsequently amended in December 2025 to replicate that State Road Methods was performing on behalf of Vivek Sharma . Nonetheless, the unique registration doc explicitly naming the RSS can nonetheless be considered on the web site for LDA lobbying disclosures.
Sharma , a resident of Acton, Massachusetts , was recognized by subsequent stories as the manager chairman of Cohance Lifesciences. Previous to main Cohance, Sharma spent over twenty years within the pharmaceutical and monetary sectors in accordance with his skilled biography on the agency’s web site. Within the authentic registration assertion filed by Squire Patton Boggs in March final 12 months, Sharma was listed as “an entity aside from the consumer that contributes greater than $5,000 to the lobbying actions of the registrant in a quarterly interval and both participates in and/or in complete or in main half supervises or controls the registrant’s lobbying actions”.
Squire Patton Boggs, State Road Methods and Vivek Sharma didn’t reply to e-mails in search of remark.
Stories that the RSS had employed a lobbyist within the US for the primary time led to vital political controversy in India. “That is hardly the primary time that the RSS..has betrayed nationwide curiosity,” Congress chief Jairam Ramesh mentioned in response to the matter.
Nonetheless, RSS spokesperson Sunil Ambekar denied that the RSS had engaged any lobbying agency in America. “Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh works in Bharat and has not engaged any lobbying agency in United States of America,” he mentioned in a press release on X in November.
A key subject raised on the time was that neither Squire Patton Boggs nor State Road Methods had registered as international brokers engaged on behalf of the RSS underneath the US Overseas Brokers Registration Act (FARA). As a substitute, the disclosures have been made underneath the Lobbying Disclosures Act (LDA) of 1995. In line with the US Division of Justice, companies representing international companies, people or non-profits don’t have to register as international brokers underneath FARA in case they’ve registered underneath the LDA with US Congress. Nonetheless, the exemption doesn’t apply to these representing international governments or political events. To make sure, the RSS is neither.
Squire Patton Boggs additionally signed a contract to foyer on behalf of the federal government of Pakistan in April of 2025. The agency’s contract with Pakistan has additionally since been terminated.
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