N-liability bill is hidden subsidy to US suppliers: Prakash Karat

The Left Front plan to raise awareness about the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill by sending letters to all MPs with the hope that they would rise above party lines and “see that the bill was against national interest”.

“I would urge that MPs of the UPA and Congress be sent to
Hiroshima and Nagasaki to see how the effects of the nuclear bombs that exploded there six decades ago still lingers on,” CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said. 

“I don’t understand how after going through the Bhopal gas tragedy any government can bring out a bill, which caps the liability of a company to such a meager amount,” he said.

The Left, in a joint communique, said it had specific objections to the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill.

“The suppliers’ liability has been made virtually non existent in the proposed bill,” Karat said, adding, “The US suppliers can make billions of dollars from the Indian market, but will not have to pay for any damages in case there’s a nuclear accident, even if they are at fault.”

“The statement of objects and reasons of the bill states that it is meant to facilitate India’s entry into an international nuclear liability regime. It explicitly states that India intends to join the convention on supplementary compensation for the nuclear damage adopted in 1997. Then, it argued it would provide India access to an international fund to compensate victims of nuclear accidents,” Karat said. 

“However, what is not mentioned is that only 13 countries have signed this convention and of the 13 countries only four, including the US, have ratified it so far,” he added.

“The nuclear liability regime being proposed through the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill is nothing but a huge hidden subsidy to the US suppliers. It appears that in order to promote private nuclear power plants and favour US nuclear equipment suppliers, the UPA is willing to sacrifice the interests of Indians,” he concluded.