The Indo-US nuclear deal is significant since it came useful in isolating Iran from any major pipeline deal with Pakistan. We were also pressured to take a pipeline deal through Kazakhstan-Afghanistan-Pakistan yet we were committed to IPI. The proof is in the pudding India pulled away from IPI deal, the IPI was conditionality. Now if it wasn’t than why don’t they dive into it and I don’t believe in this nonsense of security, measures were taken.
USA achieved all their goals with the nuclear deal:
1)They marketed the deal as something India is getting for being the good boy, and Pakistan not getting because of the whole AQ Khan scandal
2)They prevented the Iran -Pakistan-India pipeline:
a)which keeps Iran isolated
b)prevents Indian economy from growing too quickly
c)prevents access to an energy source for India/pakistan
d)brings stability to the subcontinent
3)They got India to vote against Iran in the UN (Which shocked many Indians too)
4)It gave knowledge of Indian Nuclear program in detail
5)it opened up the Indian defense market to USA
6) For a short time it impacted Indian-Iranian relations
7)It prevented possible arms deals that were in the works with Iran one good example of this is the possible brahmos sale to Iran.
8)it was a chance to bring India into the NPT,CTBT,FMCT camp
9)now that the goals are achieved the deal is being changed by Obama to the point that it may be finished. But it did give India a NSG waiver which in my opinion was even more important than the US nuclear deal.
10) it prevents strengthening of the SCO, keep India and Pakistan as unofficial members.
The pipeline was a good proposal but the timing may not have been right with USA in the region it was highly unlikely and pressure was on both India and Pakistan to drop the proposal to keep iran isolated.