The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday extended support to the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill but was critical of the “sleight of hand” of the government in drafting the law and its attempts to “hustle” it through in Parliament now.
Initiating the debate on the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill, 2010, in the Lok Sabha, senior party leader Jaswant Singh also asked the government to take note of the larger concerns of Indians and not those of a “smaller” U.S. market.
Referring to various attempts by the government to introduce contentious clauses in the Bill on which it had to backtrack, Mr. Singh said the government was indulging in a “sleight of hand” by first introducing the word ‘and’ and later ‘intent’ in the draft bill.
“It is a sleight of hand and trickery. First there was ‘and’ then ‘intent’. It is simpler and easier to take Parliament along,” he said.
Opposition parties had contended that insertion of the word “and” between sub-clauses ‘a’ and ‘b’ of Clause 17 without the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s concurrence had sought to dilute the liability of the suppliers in case of a nuclear accident.
Referring to U.S. President Barrack Obama’s oncoming visit to India this year end, Mr. Singh sought to suggest that the government was trying to “hustle” through with the legislation before the visit.
“Why are you hustling the Committee, Parliament and the issue? It is otherwise a very important issue. India is not South Korea. We don’t have to follow their example,” he said.
The former External Affairs Minister said while the government signed the agreement in 2005, it was rushing to get the Bill cleared in 2010 just before the visit of the U.S. President.
Mr. Singh said his party would support the Bill if the government accepted its amendments. “Give us more candour,” he added.
Jaswant Singh said the genesis of the bill lies in the 2005 Indo-U.S. nuclear agreement. “There is some hesitation to accept the parentage of the bill,” he said.
He claimed that an “I owe you’ was signed on September 10, 2005 by the then Foreign Secretary whereby India committed to the U.S. to buy a certain number of nuclear power plants.
“That created problems now as they (U.S.) are asking for money,” he said.
He said since India is buying 40 nuclear power plants, it was “not in a weak position”. Therefore, it should not allow the suppliers to dictate their terms.
The BJP leader, who as External Affairs Minister in the NDA government played a key role in furthering closer Indo-U.S. ties, said New Delhi should further closer relations with Washington “as a resurgent and assertive India“.
Mr. Singh said he did not think that anybody can compensate for a real nuclear incident. Nuclear accidents do not fall in the usual compensation pattern.
Mr. Singh also asked the government to consider the environmental aspects of the Act. He asked the Government for explanations on insurance and inclusion of the term “Special Drawing Rights”.
‘India needs energy’
Congress MP Manish Tiwari said India was having a nuclear agreement with not only the United States, but also with Japan, France and others.
He said that the Bill is important as India needs energy. “If India wants progress, then we have to have nuclear energy“.
Reacting for demands for increase in the insurance cover, he said, in case there is any increase in the insurance cover, the cost of electricity would also increase.
“Even if clause 17 would not be in existence, no operator would make an agreement to take indemnification of liability“.
Samajwadi Party leader Shailendra Kumar said liability should be fixed on both supplier and operator. “We have to bring development in the country that is why I think the bill is very important. “We had supported the government during the nuclear deal also“.
He said it was important that the bill is accepted by all. “There is some confusion between the liability for the operator and supplier, this should be clarified“.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Gorakh Prasad Jaiswal said there was no need for a new Bill. “There is an increasing tendency to bring in new Bills“.
“Awareness programmes should be held in places where the nuclear reactors would be set up,” he said.
Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav said the way the Bill has been brought about and from the efforts made by the government, people think that the government has been in a tearing hurry.
“Only a handful of people will benefit from nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is not a good thing. At least the government has tried to evolve a consensus,” he said adding “I would not like to be an impediment. The government has already decided on the Bill“.
Mr. Yadav said that the U.S. government wanted to bail out its companies which had suffered massive losses due to the recession and thus was putting pressure on India.
