[Reader-list] Another article, another disaster in the making

Rakesh Iyer rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com
Sun Aug 2 04:10:58 IST 2009 

Dear all

I think after reading this article, Manmohan Singh should seriously consider
to get India bombed by its own nuclear bomb, get the resolution passed in
the Indian Parliament for this purpose, and if necessary organize a trust
vote like the July one in 2008 to get it passed. For after all, what's the
use of living like this, suffering injustice day in and day out? Why
increase the pain of the people both in real and potential terms? Let us end
all this at least. May be other nation-states across the world may learn
their own lessons and not make mistakes at least.

If only Singh or Sonia Gandhi or Advani or Modi (or other politicians,
including the useless Madhya Pradesh ones) would have lost any of their
relatives in Bhopal, would probably they understand the anguish and despair
people of Bhopal have suffered after the 1984 gas leak in the then-Union
Carbide plant. And probably only then in their conscience would a feeling
generate to get justice for the cause. I always wonder where are the RSS
(and the rest of the Sangh parivar including the BJP), the Congress, the
Muslim league, the RJD, the Samajwadi Party, the BSP, the DMK, the AIADMK,
the Left, the PMK, the JMM, the JD(U), the NC, the PDP and all other
political forces of the country when it comes to getting justice for those
who suffered in Bhopal. And where are their conscience levels and sources of
information when such kinds of things are taking place in this nation?

Or have they sold their conscience and our lives and proven that they are
worse than Ajmal Kasab?

Regards

Rakesh

Article:


    <http://www.tehelka.com/>
<http://www.tehelka.com/home/20090328/default.asp>
<http://www.tehelkahindi.com/>







     Home <http://www.tehelka.com/> |  Current
Affairs<http://www.tehelka.com/channels/news/news_main.asp>
 |   Opinion <http://www.tehelka.com/channels/op-ed/oped_main.asp> |
Business <http://www.tehelka.com/channels/Business/Business_main.asp>
|  Engaged
Circle <http://www.tehelka.com/channels/crusader/crusade_main.asp> |  Culture
& Society <http://www.tehelka.com/channels/Thehub/thehub_main.asp> |
<http://emagazine.tehelka.com/>  | Web
Specials<http://www.tehelka.com/channels/Web_Specials/Web_Specials.asp>
 |  Interact <http://www.tehelka.com/Interactive/> |
Archives<http://www.tehelka.com/archive/archive_main.asp>


 Saturday, 1 August 2009 Advertise With
Us<http://www.tehelka.com/about/advertise.asp>|
<http://www.tehelka.com/feeds/tehfeed.xml> | *TEHELKA INITIATIVES:* Critical
Futures <http://www.criticalfutures.org/> | Tehelka
Foundation<http://www.thetehelkafoundation.org/>





      *From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 30, Dated August 01, 2009*
 *ENGAGED
CIRCLE*   *guest column*

*A Time Bomb We Await*

*Hillary Clinton was here to urge a dangerous deal — that the US never has
to clean up another Bhopal mess*

*NITYANAND JAYARAMAN
* *Independent journalist*  [image: image]  *Wilting **A woman exposed to
toxic gas waits for a doctor at a hospital in Bhopal
*****

THE FALLOUT of Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to India could be dangerously
nuclear, literally. Clinton’s India visit had an important agenda – to urge
India to pass a law to ensure that a Bhopallike disaster does not trouble
its victims for as long as the 25-year-old tragedy has. There is one twist,
though. Bhopalis are not the subject of this proposed legislation. Rather,
the ‘victims’ that the two Governments are committed to helping are US
multinationals like GE that are champing at the bit to supply nuclear
equipment and lure India’s $175 billion nuclear market. India expects to set
up 40,000 MW of nuclear power plants over the next 20 years.

The poor little rich American corporations are petulant. State-owned
companies like France’s Areva SA and Russia’s Rusatom are already in the
race to supply equipment to India. But private sector players like GE and
Toshiba Westinghouse say they will not invest until India ratifies the
Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSCNL) and
installs a domestic civilian nuclear liability regime. They want no part of
the liabilities arising out of a Bhopal-like disaster. Rather, they say, the
entire liability in the event of a catastrophe should be borne solely by the
Indian operator of the facility. Like his predecessor, President Obama is
pushing India to guarantee that the Union Carbides of the nuclear world
suffer no losses regardless of the role that may have been played by their
equipment or technology in causing the disaster.

Exclusive liability for operators of facilities and supplier immunity may
have been the norm in earlier nuclear liability conventions adopted by some
nations. “But then, no other nation has suffered a Bhopal like disaser,”
states Kanyakumari-based anti-nuke activist S.P. Udayakumar. Indeed, Union
Carbide’s decision to deploy flawed design and untested technology
contributed substantially to the magnitude of the disaster.

An unnamed minister quoted in a June 27 Business Standard article says the
Government has a draft nuclear liability bill ready. “What this will do is
indemnify American companies so that they don’t have to go through another
Union Carbide in Bhopal,” he said. Local operators, on the other hand, will
have to raise $450 million up-front to cover post-disaster compensation
costs. Additional costs will have to be borne by Indian taxpayers. The
Price-Andersen Act in the US also imposes a similar burden on the American
taxpayer. According to Cato Institute, the free market think-tank, this
could translate into a subsidy of 2 to 3 US cents for every unit of
electricity generated. Another estimate places the annual subsidy extended
by the Price Andersen Act to the industry at about $3 billion.

Ironically, the liability cap — $450 million — is exactly what Union Carbide
paid for the Bhopal disaster. Whittled down from the original $3 billion
that the Government estimated as the cost of compensation, the final
settlement when spread across 6 lakh victims amounted to a paltry $500 per
victim – insufficient even to cover a year’s medical bills, leave alone pay
for treating sick children born after the disaster.

BHOPAL ACTIVISTS are “disgusted” by the attitudes of the Indian and US
Governments. “A nuclear disaster will have far greater impact than Bhopal
had. Environmental contamination will spread farther. Bhopal has taught us
that $450 million is woefully inadequate to deal with a disaster’s
fallouts,” said Rachna Dhingra of The Bhopal Group for Information and
Action. In 2006 and 2008, Bhopal survivors, including children, walked 800
km to Delhi to demand for economic, medical and environmental
rehabilitation, provision of clean drinking water, and punishment of the
guilty corporations from the Prime Minister. On both occassions, the PM
conceded the demands, albeit after making them wait for months on the
streets of Jantar Mantar, and suffer police torture. Till date, he has not
delivered on his promises.

Contrast this with the speed at which the UPA and the US Governments are
moving to appease corporate interests. During his visit to Washington in
March 2009, India’s special envoy Shyam Saran told the Americans that
progress was being made on the liability law. In April, he said the internal
processes for India’s accession to the CSCNL were complete and promised that
the law would be enacted after the national elections. During Clinton’s
visit, this was a significant point on the agenda.

A panel discussion organised on the eve of Clinton’s visit to New Delhi was
openly critical of the proposed liability regime. But the organisers – the
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace and the International Campaign
for Justice in Bhopal – clearly stated that they were not opposed to the
concept of a liability regime. “But such a law should be informed by the
experiences of disaster victims, rather than be influenced by the interests
of corporate perpetrators of such disasters,” a statement by the two
organisations clarified.

Such progressive legislation is not without precedent. Post-Chernobyl, the
trend in civilian nuclear liability law began tilting towards unlimited
liability, and non-exclusive liability. Non-exclusive liability would allow
victims to recover compensation from operators under dedicated nuclear
liability laws, even while keeping their options open to asserting claims
from other defendants under other statutes such as product liability laws.
Countries like Japan, Austria, Germany and Switzerland have already done
away with the cap on liability.  India is asking future victims to make do
with a little compensation from their own tax money

Austria, through a 1999 law, additionally opened up liability to suppliers
and service providers. None of these countries have ratified any of the
international conventions relating to liability because these laws do not
adequately address victims’ needs.

India’s liability bill is likely to be modeled after a draft prepared by
FICCI’s nuclear task force, comprising key beneficiaries namely NPCIL, Tata,
Reliance, Larsen & Toubro and Gammon India. Strangely, all this talk about
disaster liability, and the normal tone in which these discussions are being
held hides a sinister possibility: That despite all assurances given by
India’s nuclear proponents that a nuclear disaster will not happen, the fact
is that the nuclear industry is already negotiating to cut its losses in the
event of a such a calamity. Private industries want the business, but don’t
want to bear the risks. The Indian nuclear establishment wants the
technology, even if it means exposing Indians to the risk of being hurt by a
nuclear disaster. Even worse, it is asking future victims to make do with
what little compensation may be on offer from their own tax money in order
to ensure that private equipment suppliers are not inconvenienced. If these
are the costs, is nuclear power even worth it?

*Jayaraman is a journalist and activist volunteering with the International
Campaign for Justice in Bhopal*

*WRITER’S EMAIL*
nity68 at gmail.com

 *From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 30, Dated August 01, 2009*




 Print this story<http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=cr010809a_time.asp#>
Feedback<http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=cr010809a_time.asp#>
Add
to favorites<http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=cr010809a_time.asp#>
Email
this story<http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=cr010809a_time.asp#>

         UP Congress head
arrested<http://www.tehelka.com/dotnet/mainheadline.asp?id=1>
By A Special Correspondent
Read>><http://www.tehelka.com/dotnet/mainheadline.asp?id=1>
HS Sabharwal case takes darker
turn<http://www.tehelka.com/dotnet/mainheadline.asp?id=2>
By Divya Gupta
Section 377 Amended In Favour Of Gay Sex
<http://www.tehelka.com/dotnet/mainheadline.asp?id=3>
By Sabika Muzaffar
Ganguly honoured by Lancashire
University<http://www.tehelka.com/dotnet/mainheadline.asp?id=4>
By Tara Menon   More Stories>> <http://www.tehelka.com/dotnet/allnews.asp>
  <http://www.tehelka.com/Interactive/>
 <http://www.rambhai.com/openx-2.6.2/www/delivery/ck.php?n=ac3ca205&cb=21121>
  <http://www.delhievents.com/>
  <http://tehelka.ganeshaspeaks.com/>




   About Us <http://www.tehelka.com/about/> | Who’s
Who at Tehelka<http://www.tehelka.com/about/team.asp>| Advertise
With Us <http://www.tehelka.com/about/advertise.asp> | Print
Subscriptions<http://www.tehelka.com/Subscribe/index.asp>|
Syndication <http://www.tehelka.com/about/syndication.asp> | Terms of
Service <http://www.tehelka.com/about/tos.asp> | Privacy
Policy<http://www.tehelka.com/about/privacy.asp>|
Feedback<http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=cr010809a_time.asp#>|
Contact
Us <http://www.tehelka.com/about/contacts.asp> | Bouquets &
Brickbats<http://www.tehelka.com/channels/People/people_main.asp>
     Tehelka.com is a part of Anant Media Pvt. Ltd. © 2000 - 2009 All rights
reserved

More information about the reader-list mailing list