BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, who deposed before the parliamentary committee on the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, has pointed out that the civil liability bill was unconstitutional and had been pushed through under pressure from the US. Panel members present at the meeting did point out that India was currently negotiating
nuclear trade transfer agreements with many nations, including Russia, Japan, France, Canada and South Korea, and therefore it was incorrect to state that it was biased towards one nation.
A staunch critic of the bill, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu) member Dipankar Mukherjee, brought to the notice of the panel several contradictions within the bill. “Para 2 of the bill states the government (Indian) is fully liable while in para 6 of the document it says the government must not be subjected to any liability regime,” he said.
Parliamentary affairs minister Prithviraj Chavan had pointed out that the government was “open to discussion”. Though the UPA has the numbers in the Lok Sabha, in the Rajya Sabha it needs the cooperation of the BJP and the Left. The BJP had made it clear that the bill could not be supported in its present form. The passing of the legislation is one of the last remaining steps required to operationalise the 2008 India-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement. The bill had been referred to a parliamentary standing committee for greater scrutiny.