Withdraw Nuclear Liability Bill: BJP

In the wake of the court verdict on Bhopal gas tragedy, BJP today asked the government to withdraw the controversial Nuclear Liability Bill and accused prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi of being "insensitive" to the victims of the incident."It took 25 years for a court verdict to come for an incident in which 25,000 people have been killed. Even the compensation granted to the victims is paltry," party spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters here."Against this backdrop, the government should have a relook at such legislations. The government should withdraw the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill," he said.He said the BJP was of the view that the bill was aimed at "pleasing" the United States and not safeguarding the interests of India in case of a nuclear accident.He said the amount of compensation provided by British Petroleum to the 11 victims of oil leak in the Gulf of Mexicoand that provided to the victims of the Bhopal tragedy showeddouble standards. "We need to address such issues by risingabove political lines," he said.

"BJP has opposed the provisions of the bill in Parliament and now we will take the protest to the streets," he said. 

The BJP spokesperson also slammed the prime minister andthe Congress president for their "silence" on the court verdict. "This shows how insensitive the government is," he said.On the claims of former CBI joint director BR Lall that the Narasimha Rao government tried to save the then Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson, Hussain likened the allegation to the Bofors case and said like Ottavio Quattrocchi, the Centre gave "safe passage" to Anderson."The then district magistrate has gone on record to say that the then chief secretary asked him to grant bail to Anderson. He was ferried in the official Madhya Pradesh government plane to Delhi...the prime minister should clear the air regarding the claims," he said.He said following the developments, the Centre as well as the CBI have "lost credibility."

To a question on the Centre reconstituting a group of ministers on Bhopal gas tragedy, he said "it is nothing but an eyewash."The BJP MP denied claims that the party had accepted Rs1 lakh as donation from Dow Chemicals which owns Union Carbide. "We did not accept the money...it was returned," he said when told that an RTI reply has revealed that BJP had accepted donation from the company.When asked what the NDA government did to extradite Anderson, he said the Vajpayee government had hastened the process in 2003.