By IANS,
New Delhi : Alleging that the civil nuclear liability bill aims to “please Americans”, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday asked the government to withdraw it in the wake of the Bhopal gas tragedy verdict that handed out a meagre penalty to the convicted, 25 years after the incident.
“The government should withdraw the nuclear liability bill. The aim of the bill is to please Americans. The bill is not for the people of India,” BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said here.
“We are opposing this in parliament,” he said.
This is the first time the BJP has demanded the withdrawal of the bill. The party has so far been seeking a revision of the civil nuclear liability legislation in the light of the Bhopal experience.
The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010, which has been referred to parliament’s standing committee on science and technology after fierce opposition from major political parties, fixes the maximum amount of liability in case of a nuclear accident at Rs.500 crore, to be paid by the operator of the nuclear plant.
The legislation makes the operator exclusively liable in case of an accident, but there is no mention of the suppliers’ liability.
These provisions have prompted parallels with the Bhopal gas tragedy. Lethal gas had leaked out from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal on the night of Dec 2-3, 1984, killing thousands instantly and many more later.
On Monday, a Bhopal trial court held seven Union Carbide officials guilty of criminal negligence in the 1984 gas leak and sentenced them to two years’ imprisonment. They were immediately granted bail. The court also imposed a meagre fine of Rs.100,000 on the seven accused, including Keshub Mahindra, who then headed Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL).
Hitting out at the government over the way the Bhopal tragedy case was probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Hussain said: “The CBI is misused in the country by the government. The Congress is using the CBI as an instrument for their merits.”
The CBI was investigating the criminal culpability of various Union Carbide officials in the tragedy, within days of a police complaint being lodged at Bhopal’s Hanuman Ganj police station Dec 3, 1984.
“BJP wants the prime minister to explain to the people of India whether the CBI was working for the affected people or for (Warren) Anderson,” Hussain said.
“No answers from Sonia Gandhi (UPA chairperson) shows the callous attitude of the government,” he added.