Why is it alright to lobby for corporate clients by PR professionals?

Lobbying is an advocacy towards certain point of view. Being in a democratic and capitalist economy, there should not be two ways of interpreting of “freedom of speech.” Lobbying is a natural expression of opinions and desires of organized groups such as businesses, advocacy groups, unions etc. Whether it’s an ethical practice or not will depend entirely on the cause. It will be hypocrisy if we say that it is alright to take out processions for the tribal rights of forest dwellers and lobby to pave way for Forest Rights Act and at the same time oppose to lobbying interests of the mining companies whose business interest in some area of the forest may be at stake. The latter should have an equal right to be heard about its reasons just like the former. The reason may be ethical or unethical but lobbying is not unethical. It is alright for PR companies to lobby for corporate clients to influence government policy as long as the cause is ethical or at least it believes in.

Everyone has a say, even if no body listens to anyone. It’s the right of the people which every one will enjoy irrespective of his social stature or his assets market capitalization. But to make yourself heard, you have to make loudest noise. Whether we like it or not, there is clamour of voices out there. You have to make a loud noise to make yourself heard. To employ lobbying to make them heard you are no wrong. With the same logic, we should not have any biased opinion if someone uses North Indian political lobby to become Prime Minister of India or a corporate lobbying with sound reasoning to amend policies that will help its business interest. When we allow caste lobbies to amend policies or women parliamentarians lobbying for women reservation bill or certain bodies lobbying against Narmada dams, I don’t see any reason why we should castigate the corporate lobbying who are trying to defend their business interest. If we have problems with lobbying, why don’t we ask our government to stop lobbying for expansion of UN Security Council and for permanent membership in it? It may or may not be ethical but India has every right as a free nation to lobby for this. And so does every man, institution and corporation to lobby for its interest. For PR firms to lobby for a particular company to influence government policy is fine as long as it believes that the cause for which it is lobbying is ethical. Had it not been lobbied by corporate to relax “license raj”, the Indian economy would have been plagued by red tapism. Not every lobbyist is a Jack Abramoff just like not every politician is a Mahatma Gandhi and not every soldier is a Field Marshall Sam Maneckshaw. There are black sheep every where and it does not make sense to categorize all lobbyist as corrupt.

It is an interesting fact that world’s only super power, USA, who has a successful model of democracy and capitalism, has made legal provision of lobbying in its First Amendment of the Constitution. Today, it has more than 35000 registered lobbyists who lobby anything between caskets to defence deal. Professional lobbyists know their territory. They make very efficient use of their client's time. They can find out where the problem lies, who to talk to, and what questions to ask. They can tell what information one need to have, and what questions one will have to answer. You will find out who you have to convince and why. Essentially, they guide you through the jungle of government and public opinion. Even a PR professional are lobbying on behalf of a corporate to influence media in its perception or lobby in a manner that will build a positive image of the company even if it is not right or ethical. Corporate lobbying is fine, so is the practice of PR firm lobbying in government, an institution of democracy as it is anyway lobbying the another institution of democracy; i.e. the media. It is a subjective interpretation whether the reason for which one is lobbying is ethical or not.