"She didn't support us when we needed it, and she can be assured that the Indian-American community will not forget her intransigence," Dr R Vijayanagar, chairman of the Indian American Republican Council, declared.

The 'she' in question is US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, co-chair of the Friends of India Caucus in the Senate and, as critics pointed out, a politician who has never lost any opportunity to declare her solidarity with India and its interests.

Dr Vijayanagar pointed out that Hillary Clinton's [Images] co-chair, Senator Jon Cornyn of Texas, had played a key role in ensuring the passage of the legislation by coming out in public support of the nuclear deal.

However, Dr Vijayanagar said, Senator Clinton, "while happy to raise money from Indian Americans, made no effort to support the agreement -- despite being the India Caucus co-chair."

Elsewhere, community activists of every stripe hailed the bill's passage through the stage -- not least, political activist Swadesh Chatterjee, who had earlier this year formed the US-India Friendship Council for the express purpose of lobbying the US Congress -- the American parliament -- for speedy passage of the bill.

Chatterjee, the moving spirit of a 'Chalo DC' campaign in May that brought over 200 community activists cutting across party lines to the US capital, for two days of intense lobbying, said, "I am gratified by the strong support in both the House and the Senate for the deal."

"This shows the strength of our community," he said. "The advertisements that we as a community placed in major papers, combined with our intense and systematic national lobbying effort, helped to convince lawmakers that this deal is good and essential for America. Today, the Indian-American community stands proud."

Ray Vickery, former assistant secretary of commerce in the Clinton administration, said, "I am convinced that the US-India Friendship Council made an enormous difference in securing passage of this agreement. I have been in Washington a long time, and I have never seen the Indian-American community as focused and mobilised as they were this time."

"Swadesh and his colleagues executed a strategic game plan flawlessly, and today we see the results," Vickery said.

US-India Political Action Committee chair Sanjay Puri hailed the vote as a win for the community, and said, 'Just a short time ago, critics were saying that this deal was dead.'

'But the community came together and worked hard every day, and it is because of the community's efforts that this agreement has passed the House International Relations Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.'

The reason for the community's clout, meanwhile, was underlined as multi-millionaire IT icons Ken and Kavelle Bajaj [Images] hosted a major fund-raiser for Senator Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Biden has made no secret that he intends to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008; the fund-raiser, held in the Bajaj mansion in Potomac, Maryland state, raised several thousand dollars towards the senator's campaign war chest.