Reject US proposal to dilute nuclear liability law: CPI-M

“The U.S. continues to exercise pressure on the Indian government to dilute the Civil Nuclear Liability law which was adopted by Parliament,” the party Polit Bureau said in New Delhi.

In a statement, it said this demand had become “evident” from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement asking India to engage with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to “ensure that the nuclear liability law ‘fully conforms’ with the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC)”.

Maintaining that CSC “does not provide for suppliers’ liability” in case of a nuclear accident, the party demanded that the UPA government should reject this suggestion.

Observing that the IAEA was “only a depository for the Convention and cannot judge a law passed by Parliament”, it accused the government of “vacillating and seeking to accommodate the U.S. concerns which are primarily the interests of its nuclear industry.