Thaindian News

New York, Sep 28 (IANS) Indian Americans, praised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for their steadfast support for the India-US nuclear deal, are overjoyed with the US House of Representatives putting its seal on it.”The prime minister announced the House vote outcome at his interaction with nearly 400 prominent India Americans in New York Saturday evening, and we were all overjoyed,” said Jagat Motwani, chair (academic council) of the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO).

The India-US civil nuclear agreement, which now has to get approval of the Senate, will make relations between the two countries better and better, Motwani said, insisting that it was good not only for India but also for the US.

Explaining the agreement’s beenfits for Washington, Hemant Patel, immediate past president of the Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin AAPI) and president of the Indian American Committee, said: “The US gets a reliable partner in India, the most stable country in the region, which has 5,000 years history of non-aggression, and now of non-proliferation.”

For India the deal will boost the economy in innumerable ways, including healthcare and creating employment, Patel said, adding that the agreement’s passage in the Senate will be “probably easier” compared to that in the House.

He said big and influential Indian American organizations like AAPI and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), which lobbied with key Congressmen in support of the agreement as well as with main political parties in India, had played a key role in pushing the deal.

Sanjay Ramabhadran, president of the Indo-American Political Action Committee in the Greater Houston area, said the agreement will strengthen economic, political and strategic ties between the US and India. He said his group had successfully lobbied with Texan Congressmen to vote for the agreement.