I have no words to express my joy," Indian-American community leader Swadesh Chatterjee said November 16, while reacting to the passage, by an overwhelming majority of 85-12, of the United States-India nuclear agreement by the US Senate.
"You bet the Indian-American community has made history!" Chatterjee said. "We've come into our own. Today, I feel so good."
He and his fellow activists, Chatterjee said, were happiest over the fact that they had been instrumental in bringing US-India relations "to its greatest heights in 50 years. This was my dream for a long, long time, and it's coming through today."
The view from the outside, looking in, is that the community was crucial in getting the enabling legislation on the US-India civilian nuclear cooperation deal passed by the Senate.
A more radical, and accurate, view is that without the community's involvement, the bill likely would not have been taken up for debate and vote during the lame-duck session of the 109th Congress.
In late May, North Carolina entrepreneur and Padma Bhushan honoree Chatterjee put together a group of community activists and high tech entrepreneurs under the umbrella of the US-India Friendship Council.
He also roped in several Indian-American community organisations and specialty organisations like the Association of American Physicians of Indian origin and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, in the concerted effort to push the nuclear bill through the US Congress.
What the community displayed, more than anything else, was an ability to put its partisan aside and work towards the greater cause. There was a brief period, around September, when Republican and Democratic activists among the community went at each other in virulent fashion.
Not coincidentally, the Senate failed to take up the bill for consideration before it adjourned that month, ahead of the November 7 Congressional elections.
The recovery, though, was swift. By the time the Senate reconvened November 13, the temporarily warring factions had gotten together again for one concerted push. And this concerted effort forced Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Minority Leader Harry Reid to deliver on their pledge to see the bill through the Senate.
Chatterjee acknowledges that it was touch and go. "Had it not happened today, the deal would have been dead," he said.
He said he did not recall another occasion on which the community had stepped up to the plate in such a united fashion.
Chatterjee insisted that he had merely served as coordinator; that unnumbered activists had worked behind the scenes.
"They worked with me, they helped me make things happen, they gave me their input, and they came forward with just one phone call," he said, naming Ken Bajaj, Desh Deshpande and others, including Ranvir Trehan, Armeane Choksi, Bharat Barai, Niranjan Shah, Ashok Mago, Kamil Hasan, P C Chatterjee, Parag Saxena and Hemant Kanakia among others.
Chatterjee was also quick to praise Democratic Party stalwart Ramesh Kapur who, though breaking away to start his own organisation (Indian American Security Leadership Council), brought several veterans groups out in support of the agreement and also, significantly, his close friend of many years, Senator John F Kerry of Massachusetts.
There was also the US-India Political Action Committee headed by Sanjay Puri, and the Indian American Republican Council with Dr R Vijayanagar at the helm, both in their own ways pushing the cause along. So too did Dr Krishna Reddy's Indian American Friendship Council.
An interesting aspect of the community's effort was the way individual friendships were harnessed to the greater cause.
Thus, Ashok Mago prevailed on close friend and Texas Senator John Cornyn, co-chair of the Friends of India Caucus in the Senate. Las Vegas physician Dr R D Prabhu used his long time association to work on Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid; Sampat Shivangi of Jackson, Mississippi, delivered his home state Senators Trent Lott and Thad Cochran.
Ron Somers, president of the US-India Business Council that had come together with the US-India Friendship Council under the umbrella of the Coalition for Partnership with India, told rediff.com, "There is no doubt that the Indian-American community was the major compulsion behind today's success."
Chatterjee and others were also full of praise for Burns' assistant Anja Manuel, who ensured Burns was accessible to the community, to brief them on the nuances of the deal and the benefits that would accrue -- invaluable insight the community then took to its meetings with various lawmakers.
Image: Swadesh Chatterjee, second from right, with Senator Joseph Biden after the nuclear bill was passed by the US Senate
Photograph: Jay Mandal
Also read: The world media on the N-deal
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