There is only one meaningful question in this whole tamasha: what happens if India were to conduct a nuclear test? - The answer is US will not immediately exercise its right to return the materials and the technology. We also have the option of continuing to get our nuclear fuel supply and technology from other sources. That is the beauty of this deal. Besides India's military reactor needs for weapons can be fulfilled by the domestic supply of uranium itself. It indirectly provides a 'nuclear weapons power' status to the country though it might not be explicity spelt out in the safeguards agreement as we have not signed any international treaties like the NPT. That is why the non-profileration lobby and NPT hawks are very unhappy with this deal. Bush administration has given us a way out of the NPT & CTBT lockjam although it may have its own strategic reasons. We need to grab the opportunity. Still the deal has a long way to go to become fully operational...
But the deal has unnessarily wasted a lot of public time and newsprint because of the strong anti-american (or is it anti-indian?) posturing of the left parties.
