On June 27, the International Committee of the US House of Representatives voted 37-5 to support the President in exempting India from US laws that restrict nuclear trade with countries that have not submitted to full nuclear inspections. As we go to press the issue has gone to a panel in the Senate.
The White House wants this crucial deal done before the congressional elections in the autumn and look set to achieve this.
Indian anti-nuclear activist Achin Vanaik addressed a meeting organised by CND in London last month and explained some of the issues at stake
His address started from the question of why the US has backed India's nuclear strategy. pace in the courtship under Bush, the fundamental lines of US relations in the region are in continuity between the Clinton administration and Bush 2.
In 1998 after the first testing of nuclear weapons by India and then Pakistan, the Clinton regime were obliged to impose sanctions - but at the same time engaged in the most intense period of diplomatic discussions with India in the country's hisLOIV.
The Indians asked "why are you opposed to us having nuclear weapons - we are on your side?" Clinton fundamentally accepted this, and the real focus of the debate was what size of arsenal was acceptable to the Americans.
Bush, particularly with Condoleezza Rice leading, wants to go much faster. That's what lies behind the agreements over the last year.
It's not that concerns about the number of weapons have become irrelevant, but they know that it is not practically possible for India to rival them at this level, so they don't go on aboul Il
The shifts in relationships with the US are also leading to other relationships strengthening - initially between India and Israel and more recently between India and Japan.
All of this is a very long way from the relative neutrality in foreign policy that was the hallmark of the first thirty years of India's existence.
But while the defeat of the hated BJP government in 2004 has seen some very limited changes for the better for the mass of Indians, both commitment to a neo-liberal direction and to support for US imperialism and its war on terror remain completely intact.
Even from the left of Congress, opposition remains all too muted. In particular the support of the CPM and the CPI for nuclear power blunts any opposition to the accord.
This is profoundly mistaken not only because the dangers of nuclear power in terms of cost, pollution and extremely dangerous accidents, but because this deal above all others shows the clear link between nuclear power and nuclear weapons.
This is because the deal will make things more expensive for the Indians but is crucial because it will allow them to import uranium on the civilian side, thus allowing them to use all its limited indigenous supply of low-grade uranium on the military side.
The deal has to be agreed by Congress and before the next round of elections - so we are talking about September.
Unfortunately though those who have been making critical noises in Congress are not opposed to a strategic alliance between India and the US but are worried that this agreement with create difficulties in other spheres - particularly in terms of Iran.