INDIAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY WELCOMES CONGRESSIONAL PASSAGE OF THE US INDIA CIVIL NUCLEAR AGREEMENT
Washington, DC. – USINPAC on behalf of the over 2.5 million strong Indian American community applauded passage today of the U.S.-India nuclear pact. This agreement will allow for the transfer of U.S. civilian nuclear technology to India and further civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries. The legislation (H.R. 7081) passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 86-13.
The U.S.-India nuclear agreement has been in progress since July 2005. In December 2006, the U.S. Congress passed the Henry J. Hyde U.S.-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act, which provided a framework in U.S. law for facilitating civil nuclear cooperation with India.
The U.S.-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) and the Indian American community has worked tirelessly to see passage of this agreement for the past 3 years. The efforts have included grass root activism around the nation and working on a daily basis with members of Congress and their staff on Capitol Hill.
Senate Majority Whip Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said, "This vote strengthens an important strategic alliance between two of the world's important democracies. It will also help India meet its growing demand for electricity while bringing its civilian nuclear program under international safeguards."
Part of the USINPAC leadership, Mr. Sunil Puri who has closely worked on this issue with Senator Dick Durbin said, "we worked hard to ensure the passage of this agreement for past 3 years; it is great to see the fruition of our tireless efforts."
About USINPAC
USINPAC is the political voice of 2.5 million Indian-Americans. USINPAC provides bipartisan support to candidates for federal, state and local office who support the issues that are important to the Indian-American community. For more information, go to www.usinpac.com.
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USINPAC delegation-October 2007
2007USINPAC recently concluded a fact-finding delegation to India (October 22nd to October 24th 2007) that sought answers to the question of why the US-India agreement on civilian nuclear energy cooperation is stalled. The Henry J. Hyde US-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006 was ratified by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Bush in December 2006. Thus, from the US side, it is considered a done deal. However, we needed to understand why sections of Indian civic society and politics are so resistant to this deal. USINPAC leadership from the US and India met with senior leaders of the ruling UPA government, opposition party leaders, and the US ambassador to India. Our sole intention was to understand differing perspectives, so that we could come back and report to our constituencies in the community and on the Hill, and while in New Delhi be sensitive to India’s internal democratic processes.
The delegation first met with senior leadership in the Congress party, which has the largest majority in the Lok Sabha (the House of Commons, roughly equivalent to the US House of Representatives). The Congress party had been responsible for structuring this deal from the Indian side. The delegation held talks with Prithvi Raj Chavan, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Rajiv Shukla, a Rajya Sabha MP (Member of Parliament, Congress Party), Kapil Sibal, Minister for Science and Technology. The delegation had a detailed meeting with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
We also met Mr. T.K. Nair, Principal Secretary to the PM, to see if the bureaucracy thought differently about the situation. On the other end of spectrum, the delegation met with Mr. Rajnath Singh, president of the BJP, Mr. Arun Shourie, the chief spokesperson of the BJP on the nuclear deal; and Mr. D. Raja, a voice of the Left combine.
Every party recognized USINPAC as an organization that is working in an unbiased fashion. All parties who met the delegation conveyed their readiness for a dialogue with the others. Each party requested the delegation to initiate and proceed with a series of communication with all the parties if the opportunity arose.
To review a summary of the above mentioned delegation please click here. Please feel free to share your feedback and comments at info@usinpac.com.
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“I want to commend the Senate for passing this historic agreement and I especially applaud the efforts of key members of the House and the Senate who have worked hand in hand with Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns and in cooperation with USIBA/USINPAC to keep this deal alive. Tonight’s vote is a culmination of those efforts which will re-define US-India relations for generations to come and USINPAC/USIBA should be recognized for the significant work they have done to bring this agreement about.”
Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO)
I wish to assure you of my commitment to work with you as we begin the process of undertaking a civic nuclear cooperation agreement between the US and India...
Congressman Tom Lantos, Ranking Member of the House International Relations Committee, in a letter to Ambassador Ronen Sen dated November 8th, 2005, at an event hosted by USINPAC
President Bush has shown outstanding leadership by transforming our relations with India, which is the world's largest democracy and a key ally in the fight against terrorism. Of the many important issues we work on with India, the issue that is receiving the majority of Congress's attention is the issue of civilian nuclear cooperation.
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Senior Member of the House International Relations Committee and Co-Chair of the House Caucus on India and Indian Americans |
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