Republicans Curry-ency calling

Date: Thursday, February 06, 2003 2:49 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/inbeltway.htm

Inside the Beltway -- The Washington Times

February 6, 2003
Inside the Beltway
John McCaslin

Political tidbits and other shenanigans from around the nation's
capital.

Curry-ency calling

Republican fund raising from India?

Rediff (Rediff.com) business reporter Bipin Chandran writes

from New Delhi that the Republican Party has a band of young and
enthusiastic fund-raisers toiling by telephone in the Indian

communities of Noida and Gurgaon.

A team of 75 is now at work and "could be ramped up depending

on the success of the campaign. These operators are required to call up
people in the U.S. seeking their support for President George W. Bush
and a donation for the Republican cause," says the story.

"This is the first time such a project has been handed out to a

company outside the United States," according to Mr. Chandran, identifying
HCL eServe a business arm of Shiv Nadar's HCL Technologies as having "bagged
a project to undertake a fund-raising campaign for the U.S. Republican Party
over the telephone."

The Republican Party contract reportedly came on the heels of a

successful anti-abortion campaign the foreign company orchestrated for
an unidentified U.S. politician. Asked to comment, the Indian company
said it was against its privacy policy to identify clients.

However, Kevin Sheridan, spokesman for the Republican National

Committee, tells Inside the Beltway that the national party has in
no way, shape or form enlisted the Indian company to conduct fund
raising in the name of Mr. Bush or any other nationally elected Republican
in Washington.

"Who are these Republicans?" he asks. "They are saying they are

fund raising for Republicans, but we (the RNC) don't know who these
Republicans are. It's certainly not the Republican National Committee.

And I will add that we don't appreciate the inference."

[snip]

John McCaslin, a nationally syndicated columnist, can be reached at
202/636-3284 or by e-mail: jmccaslin@washingtontimes.com.

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