The whole purpose of the safeguards agreement is to operationalise the Indo-US nuke deal.This is the stated objective.The nuke deal is governed by the US Hyde Act.This is binding on the US.Certainly it is not binding on India.But the cost of noncompliance with the provisions of the Hyde Act for India will be enormous,economically, and this is the DETERRENT which could be very much worse than sanctions.After signing the safeguards accord,can we ignore the US, for whatever reason,and engage in nuclear commerce with other NSG countries?I believe not,because the same US which is supposed to lobby for India for getting exemption,can use its clout to dissuade the supplier countries from supplying nuke fuel to india.
