By Biplob Kumar Das and Meghnad Bose
India’s largest Hindu far-right organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is no longer working with lobbyists in the U.S. after launching its first known lobbying campaign targeting members of Congress last January.
Squire Patton Boggs, the firm that lobbied on behalf of the RSS, terminated the campaign weeks after a Prism investigation detailed the RSS’s lobbying activities, according to public disclosures.
The firm also filed several amendments to its lobbying registration and quarterly reports that retroactively changed details about its client. Previous reports show the client as State Street Strategies doing business as the lobbying firm One+ Strategies on behalf of the RSS. The amended documents, which were filed on Dec. 23 and 29, replace the RSS with an individual named Vivek Sharma.
Sharma, who is based in Acton, Massachusetts, is the executive chair of Cohance Lifesciences, a drug manufacturer with major operations in India and the U.S. He had been listed in Squire Patton Boggs’ original lobbying registration as “an entity other than the client that contributes more than $5,000 to the lobbying activities in a quarterly period” and either participates in or supervises the registrant’s lobbying activities.
Sharma, the RSS, Squire Patton Boggs, and One+ Strategies did not respond to Prism’s requests for comment by publication time.
On Nov. 12, Prism reported that Squire Patton Boggs received $330,000 in the first three quarters of 2025 to lobby officials in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on behalf of the RSS. Public records indicate this was the first time the RSS hired lobbyists in the U.S.
This story was originally published in prismreports.org. Read the full story here.
