Two years in the making, India and the United States have unveiled a 22-page nuclear agreement that makes history. What Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf overlooks is that the deal between the only superpower, which is also the world's leading nuclear weapons state, and the only declared nuclear power yet to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is not about bombs.
It is about powering India into the future. It is about reducing global warming. It is about cutting back greenhouse gases. In fact, the agreement is a disincentive for nuclear testing.
Its crafting should end the western myth that the guiding mantra for Indian diplomacy is 'just say no'. That disingenuous fallacy does a disservice to the technocrats managing India's engagement with the world. Indeed, the next step on converting the agreement into a treaty could be held up by the US Congress' traditional reservation about non-western nuclear powers.
In Washington, the document is a 'frozen text' - it cannot be amended and can be voted only for or against. It stems from US Vice-President Dick Cheney's view of the president's prerogative over foreign policy and allows the president to waive the Hyde Act when US interests are deemed to be at stake. The act obliges the US to cease nuclear energy assistance to India if it conducts a nuclear test.
The Democratic-controlled Congress will have doubts about this, but presidential candidates may see its usefulness. The US Supreme Court, with two Bush-appointed justices, is likely to sympathise with Mr Cheney's view of presidential prerogative.
If it does, the agreement will become a treaty with global consequences, satisfying India's need for a relatively clean and reliable source of power for modernisation. Between 2002 and this year, India was able to meet only half its projected capacity addition to electricity.