Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday flagged safety risks and loopholes in the Centre’s nuclear energy bill or the SHANTI Bill.
The Bill proposes the grant of licences to private companies to operate nuclear power plants, the removal of an existing contentious liability clause for suppliers of fuel and technology, as well as the rationalisation of the levels of payouts by operators in case of accidents.
Tharoor took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre, saying that the government was very vocal about harnessing the immense energy released by splitting an atom. He said, however, that that the Centre had not put in the same energy in drafting a bill which was coherent, rigorous, and not full of loopholes, PTI news agency reported.
While participating in a debate on the SHANTI (Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India) Bill in the Lok Sabha, Tharoor said it was a “dangerous leap into privatised nuclear expansion.”
He further said that the pursuit of capital could not be allowed to overlook public safety, environmental protection and victim justice. “We cannot allow the pursuit of capital to override the non-negotiable requirements of public safety, environmental protection and victim justice,” Tharoor said.
Tharoor also alleged that the legislation had several exceptions, was heavy on discretion and largely indifferent to public, according to the PTI report.
“We have mastered nuclear fusion and fission but not, apparently, legislative precision. The SHANTI Bill is a milestone but for the wrong reasons,” the Congress MP said.
“I am not sure whether it is a nuclear bill or an unclear bill,” Tharoor further said.
SHANTI must not become ‘cruel irony’ after ‘preventable disaster’
Tharoor, while highlighting that the name of the Bill means “peace and sustainability”, said, “Let us ensure that this name is not a cruel irony in the aftermath of a preventable disaster.” He further added that the “promise of transforming India” must not “conflate the risk of scarring India.”
The Congress MP said the Bill “gives way to ambiguity and deepens uncertainty” regarding the future of India’s nuclear framework. Tharoor highlighting India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru laying the foundation to the country’s nuclear program, and former PM Manmohan Singh taking the 2008 Indo-US nuclear deal across the last mile.
He said that these had pulled India out of isolation and taken it to an era of strategic confidence in nuclear power, PTI reported. However, he said the current ill is a “a disappointing reversal” of the steps taken in the past.
Tharoor said the language of the Bill, particularly the preamble which describes nuclear energy as a “a clean and abundant source for electricity and hydrogen production”, was “dangerously misleading.”
“It completely neglects the serious, massive and irreversible risks from radioactive leaks, long-lived nuclear waste and the potential for catastrophic accidents,” PTI quoted Tharoor as saying.
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