The Congress-led Government's move to bypass the Atomic Energy Commission and subvert the nuclear liability law for American firms to reap the benefits of the India-US civil nuclear deal, smacks of servility.
It is significant that it comes after Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to New Delhi and before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's trip to Washington. Evidently the nuclear lobby in the US has forced the hand of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security for the Nuclear Power Corporation of India limited to sign a preliminary contract with an American company without a viability analysis.
Washington is now extracting a high price from New Delhi for its exertions to end India's nuclear isolation. But India cannot be beholden to the US by allowing multinational firms in the US to dump junk equipment and get away scot-free in the event of an accident. The insistence on the waiver of the ‘right to recourse’ clause by the manufacturers and suppliers of the nuclear reactors means that the foreign firms cannot guarantee safety.