The Left Parties on Tuesday called on the Centre to immediately appeal against the Bhopal Gas tragedy case verdict and said the tragedy held lessons for the Nuclear Liability Bill which the government was assiduously pushing.
Terming the verdict as a “travesty of justice” and “insulting the memory” of those who perished, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said the Bhopal disaster and the legal framework showed how the American suppliers and owners have escaped criminal liability. In this context the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill which excludes foreign suppliers from any liability may help more Warren Andersons, it said.
Pointing out that the Nuclear Liability Bill limits compensation to even less than the Bhopal settlement, the CPI (M) warned that pushing ahead with the proposed legislation would mean playing with the safety and interests of the Indian people.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist Liberation) also said “the Bhopal verdict warns us as to how the Indian establishment's policy of pandering to the U.S. and its corporations was injurious to the safety and health of Indians.” The U.S., it pointed out, was urging India to pass the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill which limits the liability of operators to $470 millions, “a sum that the Bhopal experience has shown to be grossly inadequate.”
