Former US congressman and India's friend Stephen Solarz dies at 70

Former congressman Stephen Solarz, who supported India before it was popular in Washington, has died at the age of 70, agency reports said.

Solarz died on Monday in Washington, DC, after a long battle with oesophageal cancer.

A Democrat, Solarz served nine terms representing New York in the House of Representatives.

After being elected from Brooklyn in 1974, Solarz quickly took to foreign affairs and made that his forte.

Being a forceful advocate for India, Solarz served as the lonely voice in Congress when Indo-US relations were strained during the Cold War. He was undisturbed by New Delhi's nuclear weapons programme and consistently opposed military aid to Pakistan.

Solarz saw India as a natural ally of isolated Israel and played a behind-the-scenes role in nurturing the now friendly relationship between New Delhi and the Jewish state.

He nicknamed himself "the congressman from Bombay" and sported jackets in the style of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.