BJP asks Sonia Gandhi to break silence over Anderson's exit

The BJP today asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi to break her silence on the then Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson's exit and said the UPA should learn a lesson from the Bhopal gas verdict and withdraw the nuclear liability bill.

"I would like to know why Sonia Gandhi and Rahul are mainitaining silence over the issue," BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters here.

Referring to the statement of the son of the then home minister PV Narasimha Rao that his father had nothing to with Anderson and the remark by former chief minister Arjun Singh putting the entire responsibility on the Centre, he said, "They should break the silence and tell the people what the reality is."

The party spokesman alleged that Congress leaders, whether from the state or the Centre, were responsible for providing safe passage to Warren Anderson.

Noting that the Bhopal tragedy should be an eye opener, he demanded that the Centre withdraw the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010 which was now before a Parliamentary Standing Committee for scrutiny. "The bill is not acceptable to BJP," he said.

He said the bill does not have provisions to make foreign operators pay adequate compensation to victims in case of nuclear disasters. The proposed law fixes a cap of Rs 500 crore on compensation to be given to nuclear accident victims whereas it is Rs 60,000 crore in the US.

"Instead of taking lesson from Bhopal tragedy, the Congress, which talks about 'aam admi' (common man), is more concerned about the interests of foreigners," he alleged.