[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 74 (Thursday, May 23, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5549-H5551]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    INDIAN EMBASSY CAUGHT RED-HANDED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, for many years I have talked 
about the horrible human rights violations that have been talking place 
around the world, but in particular in a place called Punjab in Kashmir 
and Nagaland in India. Because of that, I have been the target of 
people who support the Indian lobby in the United States.
  At one time, my life was threatened, as well as that of my wife and 
my children, and they have supported my opponents in campaigns year in 
and year out. I understand that because I have been talking about the 
gang raping of women that has been taking place over there, the 
tortures of individuals who have been taken out of their homes in the 
middle of the night to be tortured to death never to be seen again, and 
the placing of about 1.1 million Indian troops in Punjab and Kashmir 
and Nagaland to repress those people up there because all they want is 
freedom, democracy and human rights.
  But today, Mr. Speaker, I found out some additional things that need 
to be brought to the attention of my colleagues and the American 
people. I found out, Mr. Speaker, that the Indian Embassy has been 
caught red-handed violating America's national sovereignty and 
democratic values. Newspapers have reported that a Maryland political 
fundraiser named Lalit Gadhia confessed that the Embassy provided over 
$46,000, which he used to reimburse friends of associates for political 
contributions that he solicited.
  These contributions went to pro-India Members of Congress and to a 
political action committee, the Indian American Leadership Investment 
Fund. India's violations of democratic principles have now come to the 
United States of America. The scheme was run by former Indian 
Ambassador S.S. Ray and Embassy official Devendra Singh. It is illegal 
for noncitizens to contribute to U.S. political campaigns or for anyone 
to make a contribution in another person's name. Yet this is not the 
first time that the Indian Embassy has been caught interfering in U.S. 
political campaigns.
  Earlier this year, it came to light that former Ambassador Ray urged 
Indian Americans to support a candidate in the South Dakota senate 
race, and the Embassy sent out a letter attacking a member of this 
House who is running for senator in New Jersey.
  Mr. Speaker, now they are infecting the American political process 
with foreign money. They must believe that America is corrupt. This 
interference leads one to believe that the Indian journalist Rajinder 
Puri of the Times of India was right when he described India as, ``A 
rotten, corrupt, repressive and antipeople system.''
  The U.S. Government must make it clear that India's interference in 
American politics is unacceptable. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 
1425, which will cut off U.S. development aid to India until it 
respects human rights, and House Concurrent Resolution 32, which calls 
for self-determination for the Sikhs of Khalistan. These two measures 
will show the Indian Government that their disregard for human rights 
and democratic principles are not to be tolerated.
  In addition, India illegally tried to influence congressional 
elections and that will not be tolerated as well. I hope that the new 
government of India will correct these practices and that India and the 
United States can begin to live together in mutual respect for freedom, 
democracy and human rights, and that the new government will respect 
the sovereignty of other nations and not be in fear in our elective 
process.
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the articles referred to 
earlier and a press release from the Council of Khalistan of the Gadhia 
case:

                [From the Washington Times, May 9, 1996]

              Democrat Guilty of Laundering Contributions

                          (By Mary Pemberton)

       Baltimore.--A Democratic Party activist pleaded guilty 
     yesterday to devising a scheme to funnel $46,000 in illegal 
     contributions to a political action committee and several 
     federal election campaigns.

[[Page H5550]]

       Lalit H. Gadhia, 57, who had been Gov. Parris Glendening's 
     campaign treasurer, pleaded guilty in federal court to one 
     count of causing a false statement to be made to the Federal 
     Election Commission, U.S. Attorney Lynne A. Battaglia said. 
     He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine at 
     sentencing Aug. 6.
       None of the money in question went to the governor's 
     campaign. But Maryland Republican Party Chairman Joyce Lyons 
     Terhes said Gadhia's activities are indicative of the type of 
     people Mr. Glendening surrounds himself with.
       ``I think it is one more example of the flawed 
     administration of Glendening,'' she said.
       But a state Democratic Party spokesman said it has nothing 
     to do with Mr. Glendening and, if anything, reflects 
     positively on the party.
       ``It is very unfortunate that he became overzealous, but 
     the Clinton administration does not back off . . . even 
     though this guy has been a strong supporter of Democrats,'' 
     David Paulson said.
       The FBI said Gadhia approached the Indian-American 
     Leadership Fund in the fall of 1994 and persuaded the New 
     Mexico PAC to contribute to candidates other than Indian-
     Americans, as long as he did the fund raising.
       For three weeks in October 1994, Gadhia presented the PAC 
     with checks totaling $34,900, which he said were 
     contributions from a number of individuals. He also provided 
     names, addresses and occupations for those individuals so 
     that the PAC could file the required reports with the FEC.
       The PAC, in return, made political contributions to federal 
     candidates selected by Gadhia in the November elections.
       For the most part, the money donated to the PAC did not 
     come from the contributors, prosecutors, said. At least 
     $31,400 of the funds provided to the PAC were laundered by 
     individuals who issued checks to the Indian-American 
     Leadership Fund and then were reimbursed in cash for their 
     contributions by Gadhia or his intermediaries, according to 
     the FBI.
       Prosecutors said Gadhia used the same type of scheme to 
     launder $15,000 in illegal contributions that he provided 
     directly to a number of federal election campaigns.
                                                                    ____


                 U.S. Concern on Embassy Political Role

                           (By Aziz Haniffa)

       Washington.--Barely two weeks into his term after 
     presenting his credentials to President Clinton, India's new 
     Ambassador, Naresh Chandra, received a strong complaint from 
     the Clinton Administration about its concern over the Indian 
     Embassy's alleged interference in the American political 
     process.
       State Department officials said that Robin Raphel, 
     Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs and the 
     Administration's point person for the subcontinent, had 
     called Chandra to raise the issue about the Justice 
     Department's finding that an Indian diplomat at the embassy 
     here was the source of thousand of dollars of illegal 
     campaign contributions funneled through an Indian-American 
     political action committee by a longtime Democratic Party 
     activist.
       On May 8, in a submission of a ``statement of facts'' filed 
     in court as the basis for a guilty plea entered by Lalit H. 
     Gadhia, 58, the office of the U.S. District Attorney in 
     Baltimore, Maryland, said, ``The evidence indicates that the 
     source of the cash used by Mr. Gadhia to finance the nominee 
     contributions was Devendra Singh, an individual assigned to 
     the Indian Embassy in Washington.'' Singh, who was Minister, 
     Community Affairs, at the embassy from late 1990 to early 
     1995, returned to India to take up the position of Director-
     General of Police in Rajasthan.
       State Department officials said that Raphel had called 
     Chandra ``to express our strong concern about this allegation 
     of an Indian Embassy official being involved'' in a money-
     laundering scheme to make campaign contributions to pro-India 
     American lawmakers.
       One official said that ``at this point, (the Raphel call to 
     Chandra) this is about it,'' as far as any raising of the 
     issue with the embassy is concerned. However, the official 
     acknowledged that ``anything further will depend on what 
     unfolds legally. So we'll have to see about that.''
       State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said the matter 
     was ``a criminal case'' and that aspect would be handled by 
     the Department of Justice. But he said, ``On the diplomatic 
     side of this, the diplomatic aspect of it, we have contacted 
     the Indian Embassy here in Washington and expressed our very 
     strong concern about this particular case.'' The embassy 
     spokesman, Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, declined comment on 
     Raphel's call to Chandra and only reiterated his earlier 
     statement that ``the Indian Embassy always has and continues 
     to operate strictly within the basis of diplomatic 
     propriety.''
       On May 8, U.S. Attorney Lynne A. Battaglia, whose office 
     prosecuted the case, told The Baltimore Sun, which first 
     broke the story about this money-laundering plan, ``The fact 
     that the money came from the Indian Embassy and that so many 
     people were manipulated into participating in the scheme 
     takes this case to a higher level than we normally see in 
     these kinds of investigations.''
       In an interview with India Abroad, she had said that ``we 
     don't normally have crimes involving diplomats,'' and 
     acknowledged that as far as she could remember, such a case 
     of a diplomat trying to circumvent U.S. election laws was 
     unprecedented.
       The State Department official said that if Singh had 
     remained in Washington as an embassy official, even though he 
     would have enjoyed diplomatic immunity, ``it would have 
     raised other issues about his status in the country and 
     things like that,'' that could have resulted in the U.S. 
     calling for his expulsion.
       ``But as things stand right now,'' the official said, 
     Raphel's strong expression of concern was the extent of the 
     State Department's action in the case, which had been 
     referred to it by the Justice Department.
       Raphel's call to Chandra expressing the Administration's 
     strong concern comes close on the heels of the State 
     Department in March informing a senior member of Congress 
     that the Indian Embassy had given assurances that it was not 
     interfering in America's political process.
       In a letter to India's most acerbic critic in Congress, 
     Rep. Dan Burton, Republican of Indiana, Barbara Larkin, 
     acting Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, said, 
     ``We have raised the episodes you mention and have been 
     reassured of India's commitment to noninterference in the 
     domestic political affairs on any state.''
       On Feb. 13, Burton, a member of the House International 
     Relations Committee, wrote to Secretary of State Warren 
     Christopher complaining of a ``series of actions taken by the 
     Embassy of India, which I believe clearly constitute 
     inappropriate involvement in domestic U.S. politics.'' He 
     urged Christopher, at his ``earliest opportunity,'' to 
     protest ``this breach of protocol with the Indian 
     government.''
       First, he said, ``Ambassador Siddhartha Shankar Ray openly 
     and actively endorsed Senator Larry Pressler's bid for re-
     election in South Dakota'' in a December speech to the 
     Indian-American Forum for Political Education in Boston. Ray 
     told the audience to ``please make sure Larry Pressler 
     (Republican from South Dakota) goes to the Senate again,'' 
     Burton said.
       Second, he reported, the embassy has ``actively sought to 
     intervene in the current Senate race in New Jersey.'' Burton 
     said the deputy chief of mission, Shyamala Cowsik, had 
     circulated a letter to the Indian-American community 
     criticizing Democratic Representative Robert Torricelli for 
     his ``record'' in attacking alleged human rights abuses in 
     India. Cowsik's letter, Burton contended, ``not so subtly 
     notes that Torricelli is running for the Senate this 
     year,'' and added, ``It can only be assumed that these 
     instances of political interference that have come to 
     light point to a broader pattern of political 
     involvement.''
       Torricelli is running for the Senate seat being vacated by 
     the retiring Democratic Senator Bill Bradley. He has co-
     sponsored legislation by Burton calling for the suspension of 
     American development aid to India unless it alleviates rights 
     conditions.
       In his letter to Christopher, Burton insisted that he was 
     ``not writing out of partisan considerations,'' and noted 
     that, as a Republican, the embassy's actions were intended to 
     benefit Republican candidates in both races.
       ``There is a larger principal at stake,'' he declared. ``It 
     is a serious violation of diplomatic protocol for an 
     ambassador to attempt to influence or intervene in domestic 
     political contests. The voters of New Jersey and South Dakota 
     should have the opportunity to make up their own minds 
     without foreign interference.''
       He said that had the American Ambassador to India attempted 
     ``to sway an election, there would be howls to protest.''
       In her reply to Burton, Larkin said the State Department 
     appreciated ``the nonpartisan nature of your concern.''
                                                                    ____


                   Ex-Envoy Denies U.S. Campaign Tie

                           (By P.B. Chandra)

       Jaipur.--Devendra Singh, a former senior diplomat of the 
     Indian Embassy in Washington, has denied his involvement in 
     the illegal campaign contributions funneled through the 
     Indian American Political Action Committee (PAC).
       Singh is currently the Director-General of Police of 
     Rajasthan. He served as a Minister, Community Affairs in the 
     Indian mission from 1990 to 1995 before returning to India.
       Singh told ``India Abroad'' he did not give any money to 
     Lalit H. Gadhia, a longtime Democratic party activist, in 
     illegal campaign contributions. Reacting to media reports 
     that Gadhia had pleaded guilty to illegally raising the funds 
     and named Singh as the diplomat who gave Gadhia the money, 
     Singh said his job as Minister, Community Affairs demanded 
     that he should meet various people but he never paid any 
     amount to anyone for financing any candidate's election. 
     Singh was the security officer of late Prime Minister Rajiv 
     Gandhi before being transferred to the Washington mission.
       When asked about an air freight receipt and copy of the 
     report sent by Gadhia to him and which was subsequently 
     seized by U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in 
     Gadhia's office, Singh said he knew nothing about the air 
     freight receipt and reports. When Singh was asked whether he 
     could be called to court to give evidence against Gadhia, he 
     said the case related to the period when he enjoyed complete 
     diplomatic immunity.
       When asked whether it was true that Gadhia has implicated 
     him while making the

[[Page H5551]]

     guilty plea in the court, Singh said that in all such cases 
     the Indian mission was answerable. Singh said then Indian 
     Ambassador Siddhartha Siddhartha Shankar Ray had clarified 
     the Indian mission's viewpoint and there was nothing much 
     left to be added to that.
                                                                    ____


    Indian Embassy Caught Red-Handed--Fund Raiser Admits Illegally 
                   Laundering Political Contributions

       Washington, D.C., May 14--Lalit H. Gadhia, a major 
     political fundraiser in Maryland, has confessed that he 
     laundered over $46,000 in political contributions from the 
     Indian Embassy to Members of Congress, Thursday's Baltimore 
     Sun reported. Gadhia, 57, former campaign treasurer for 
     Maryland Governor Parris Glendening and a Baltimore 
     immigration lawyer, confessed to the scheme in the U.S. 
     District Court in Baltimore, according to the report.
       Under the plan, Gadhia used money provided by the Indian 
     Embassy here to reimburse Indian Americans and Indians living 
     in the United States for contributions they made to the 
     candidates the Embassy supported. According to the report, 
     the Embassy, through Gadhia, illegally gave $31,400 to the 
     Indian American Leadership Investment Fund, a Los Angeles-
     based political action committee, which then distributed it 
     to candidates. It is illegal for noncitizens to contribute to 
     U.S. political campaigns or for anyone to make a contribution 
     in another person's name.
       The Embassy officials in charge of the scheme, former 
     Ambassador S.S. Ray and former Embassy staffer Devendra 
     Singh, have both returned to India. Mr. Ray was a losing 
     candidate for Parliament in the recent elections and Mr. 
     Singh holds a high-ranking position with the Rajasthan state 
     police. On February 19, 1995, Indian Foreign Minister R.L. 
     Bhatia said at a press conference that ``there is a strong 
     anti-India lobby in the United States. We are spending large 
     sums of money through Ambassador Ray to neutralize it.'' 
     During the time that Mr. Ray was Governor of Punjab. Sikhs 
     spoke of ``the three Rs--Ray, Ribeiro, and Rajiv''--a very 
     repressive trio. Julian Ribeiro was Director General of 
     Police at the time. He and Mr. Ray are responsible for 
     instituting the tactic of the fake ``encounter'' in Punjab. 
     In a fake encounter, a Sikh will be killed by the police or 
     while in custody, then they will report that he died in an 
     ``encounter,'' thus providing cover for the killing.
       Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of 
     Khalistan, the government in exile of Khalistan, confronted 
     Mr. Ray in the hall of the Longworth House Office Building, 
     calling him ``the Butcher of Punjab.'' The confrontation was 
     picked up by the media. Mr. Ray returned to India shortly 
     after that confrontation. The new ambassador, Naresh Chandra, 
     brought his brother, Girish Chandra Saxena, to the Embassy 
     with him. Girish Saxena is a former head of India's Research 
     and Analysis Wing (RAW), which infiltrated Sikh militant 
     organizations before the ``Operation Bluestar'' attack on the 
     Golden Temple and 38 other Sikh temples throughout Punjab, 
     Khalistan, in June 1984 in which over 20,000 Sikhs were 
     killed. Ambassador Chandra himself has recently been 
     implicated in illegal smuggling of CFCs from India to the 
     United States. CFCs have been banned in the United States 
     since January 1. According to the Customs Service, CFCs are 
     now the number two problem after illegal drugs.
       ``Mr. Gadhia's confession shows the moral bankruptcy of the 
     Indian regime,'' said Dr. Aulakh. ``India has been murdering 
     Sikhs and other minorities for many years. The recent payoff 
     scandal that helped to bring down the Congress Party showed 
     the world that in addition to being a brutal tyranny, India 
     is corrupt and its claim to be a `democracy' is hollow. This 
     money-laundering campaign contribution scheme shows India's 
     total disregard for democratic principles in other countries 
     as well,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``Obviously, the regime believes 
     that everyone is as corrupt as they are,'' he stated. ``These 
     practices are unacceptable, and I hope that Mr. Gadhia's 
     confession will not be the end of the investigation. The 
     Embassy is deeply involved in this scheme, and its 
     involvement should be exposed and punished.''

                          ____________________