After the Women's reservation bill, the Govt. aims to introduce the civil nuclear liability bill in the parliament. The provisions of the bill, though supposed to fix responsibility, smacks of over protectionism and goes a long way in insulating the US' corporations working in the nuclear field, in case of a nuclear accident. This is not a cynical anti-american stand but taken after a careful deliberation of the provisions of the bill. The fact that this act is necessary for the operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal further accentuates this assertion.
First, the bill fixes the entire responsibility of a nuclear accident on the nuclear power plant operator, which is in our case is the the Nuclear Power corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL). The suppliers of nuclear equipments will not be just exonerated of charge but exempted from any investigation. This means the american suppliers can very well laugh their way to the bank without bearing any responsibility of lost lives, livelihood and long term damage to the environment.Only a detailed investigation can determine whether the cause is the operational failure or an equipment failure. But in this case any investigation would be a farce because the de- facto culprit will be the operator.
Second, it puts a ceiling on the compensation package offered by the operator at Rs. 500 Cr and the rest will be borne by the Indian government. This provision is aimed at preparing a "smooth playing field" for the entry of big corporations (both Indian and foreign) when the nuclear market gets "liberalised" or more aptly "deregulated".
All this is being done after we have already faced a major industrial disaster in the form of Bhopal Gas tragedy and there has been no fixing of responsibility of forgotten lives and lost dreams. till date, no one has been prosecuted. Warren Anderson, the american CEO of Union Carbide has successfully dodged extradition and arrest and is leaving a peaceful life in the US. Can an Indian CEO afford to do the same with americal lives.
The broad contours of the bill broadly underline that Indian lives are less valuable than american lives and will continue to remain so. The success of any economy is determined by how much value the government puts on the lives of its people. Of course, this cannot be quantified as growth rate. Successively falling rank of India in the Human development Index with rising growth rate is an indication.
