This amazing case summary by Nick Plumb highlights exactly how the Indian government infiltrates Congress, use its government operations disguised as trade organizations, backed by Indian-origin Congressmen, to rob Americans of their livelihood through deceitful policies.
#H1B
In 2020, while serving in the Virginia House of Delegates, Suhas personally sponsored House Resolution 183 “Commending ITServe Alliance.”
It praised ITServe for acting as the industry’s “collective voice” and “spearheading advocacy at state and federal levels.” It even credited ITServe with “limiting the outsourcing of this important work overseas.”
That last line has aged rather poorly.
Because we now have public documentation showing ITServe entering formal partnerships with Indian state governments specifically designed to establish IT operations and create jobs in India.
ITServe’s own April 2023 publication says it signed an MOU with the Government of Karnataka that helps its members establish startups, GCCs and back-office centers supporting their U.S. clients in Karnataka.
ITServe says Karnataka was subsidizing those operations and that Karnataka government representatives personally led the discussions with ITServe members.
Then Karnataka’s Digital Economy Mission came to Frisco, Texas, working with ITServe to invite U.S. businesses to establish and expand operations in Karnataka using government incentives.
KDEM publicly called ITServe its “Partners in Progress.” This was foreign-government investment promotion directed at American businesses inside the United States.
Telangana provides an even clearer paper trail. In August 2024, the Government of Telangana says its chief minister and IT minister appeared at an ITServe event in Dallas and explicitly urged ITServe members to invest in Telangana and participate in state projects.
Four months later, Telangana signed an MOU with ITServe. Under the reported agreement, Telangana would provide infrastructure and land, while ITServe agreed to leverage its extensive network of member companies to create an IT ecosystem and jobs in Telangana. The target was 30,000 jobs.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) applies when a person acts “at the order, request, or under the direction or control” of a foreign principal and performs specified activities inside the United States, including political activity and certain public-relations or representational work.
The DOJ published FARA guidance says when an organization conducts economic-development activity within the U.S. on behalf of a foreign local government, attempting to attract American investment into that foreign jurisdiction, the activity constitutes FARA “political activity.”
In another advisory opinion, DOJ rejected the ordinary commercial exemption where activity promoted investment through a foreign-government investment office because attracting investment and jobs serves that foreign government’s public interests.
ITServe Alliance should be under formal FARA review. DOJ should obtain the Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh agreements and the communications surrounding them.
And does Suhas still believe the organization he once formally praised for supposedly limiting overseas outsourcing deserves congressional admiration now that its own records describe partnerships designed to build IT operations, back offices and tens of thousands of jobs in India?
Congress should not be treating ITServe like an ordinary domestic trade association until DOJ determines whether its relationships and activities require disclosure under FARA.