18 Aug 2010

BJP: Virtual Opposition

There is really no difference between the BJP & the Congress as far as some things are concerned. And kow-towing to the US is one of them, as the deal on the nuclear liability bill shows:
A smooth passage in Parliament of the proposed nuclear civil liability Bill was ensured by the Union government on Tuesday after it took on board most of the suggestions made by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Among the changes agreed upon are trebling of the operator liability cap from Rs. 500 crore to Rs. 1,500 crore and specific exclusion of private operators in the nuclear sector.
Rs 1500 crore as compared to Rs 500 crore earlier? They must be joking. It is left to the Left to raise a dissenting voice:
The Left had raised four issues: India should not be part of any international convention, which, it felt, would limit the options to hold the suppliers liable; expand the scope of the proposed legislation to include non-civilian nuclear installations since in the case of an accident it might impact civilian population too; raise compensation cap to Rs.10,000 crore; and bring the supplier within the ambit of liability against the provision that mentions of such a clause in case of wilful problem in design.

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