The firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand has been appointed as consultants, the Indian Embassy said in a statement today, confirming a report first published in The Indian Express.

The government has also simultaneously retained APCO Associates Inc, as consultants. Former Congressman Solarz is a senior counsel with APCO, which specialises in public affairs and strategic communications.

Solarz will be handling the Indian account, an APCO spokesperson confirmed.The terms of the new appointees were not disclosed. Verner, Liipfert is one of Washington's most prestigious law firms with a reputation for fabulous contacts among influential lawmakers and in the executive. It recently took on its roster Bob Dole,who was the leader in the US Senate for more than a decade. Also on its rolls is George Mitchell, a former Senate Majority leader and till recently US ambassador to Ireland.

The Indian government already has an ongoing contract with two other lobbying firms, The Washington Group and American Continental. Although the Indian Embassy has said publicly that it is happy with the services provided by the two firms, it has been felt for some time that the lobbying efforts needed to be reinforced. The Washington Group has strong connections in the Congress while American Continental was said to work on the Senate.

The new additional arrangement appears to complement the same pattern with APCO covering the Congressional flank and Verner, Liipfert handling the Senate side. There has also been a swirl of controversy over the embassy's relationship with the Washington Group, whose representative David Springer was reported in the Hill newspaper as having facilitated fundraising by a lawmaker inimical to Indianinterest. Springer has since strongly denied the report and the embassy also has gone on record to paise his services.

Springer has been working for the Indian government for the past four years and it was during his time that the Indian embassy successfully and successively routed the annual Burton amendment – seeking to cut aid to India for human rights abuse – by bigger and bigger margins.

Both lobbying firms are currently on a six-month contract which is costing the Indian government around $ 45,000 per month – a modest amount by Washington lobbying standards. Typically, a good lobbying firm can bill up to a million dollars annually depending of course of its brief.

Pakistan had at one time eight lobbying firms representing it, although many of them have been discontinued due to its parlous condition after the Nawaz Sharif government came to power. The principal lobbying firm for Pakistan now is Patton.