Eight years after India and the US struck a landmark nuclear deal to transform their relations, the two countries look set to take the first tangible step to re-start their nuclear business, which could be crystallised in a commercial pact during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington next week.
If all goes well, despite a fresh controversy over the alleged dilution of India’s civil nuclear liability law the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Westinghouse Electric Company are on their way to sign an early works agreement, a tangible step to breathe life back into the landmark nuclear deal that has been languishing for the last few years.
Commercial and technical details are still being negotiated, and the negotiations may go down the wire, says a reliable source.
The nuclear deal was sealed to get India inside the global nuclear tent, with a long-term vision of scaling up the share of atomic energy in the country’s quest for energy security. But in a controversy reminiscent of the early days of intensely ideology-driven debate about the merits of the nuclear deal, a furore has erupted in the Indian parliament with the opposition accusing the government of bypassing the country’s civil nuclear liability law.
India’s Department of Atomic Energy has flagged off some concerns, which are now being carefully scrutinised. “Foreign suppliers as well as domestic vendors have raised a number of queries with regard to the manner in which the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 and its associated rules will apply to their contracts,” says the DAE. “Since these queries involve questions of law, Department of Atomic Energy sought the opinion of the ministry of law and justice on these issues. This will be examined by the Department of Atomic Energy and NPCIL.”
India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has allayed these concerns and underlined that the law and Parliament’s approval remained supreme. “The protracted negotiations that have taken place between India, the US and commercial companies in the US have been for this reason that we have stood on our ground. We have said that whatever position Parliament has taken, there no question of retreating from it,” he said.
“We have been convinced, and have tried to convince the US negotiators that whatever basis we have of our agreement, there is adequate scope in that for them to get the protection that they legitimately deserve.”
India’s former ambassador to US Ronen Sen, who played a pivotal role in pushing through the nuclear deal amid partisan polemics, has dismissed the controversy as “mindless posturing” and underlined that the liability law is “unique” to India. At a discussion in New Delhi September 20, Sen seemed to suggest that the controversy was related to anti-US prejudice among some sections in India. “An identical clarification was sought earlier too with regard to Russia, but it did not become an issue.. With Russia, and France (nuclear agreements) it is okay? But we are bristling with righteous indignation whenever the issue of US crops up,” Sen stressed.
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