A similar civil liability bill in the US Senate could have been thrown out. The US government appears confident that it can buy this Bill as well as our parliamentarians who remain imprisoned by party whips. The proposed Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill, which was to be introduced in the current Parliament session, is an exercise to provide State subsidy to foreign-nuclear reactor builders from the onus of the financial consequences of nuclear disasters, accidents and incidents.
UPA’s controversial Nuclear Liability Bill
In case of an accident due to the equipment supplied or any other external reason (design, construction), the damages would have to be paid only by the operator of the facility and not the supplier of the equipment (nuclear reactors) or the builder of the facility. In such a scenario, the foreign companies supplying the reactors will make profits and the state-run and public-funded NPCIL would be liable to pay the compensation in case of an accident. So, while the Indian people would get paid with their own money in case of an accident, foreign companies would make a killing.
Giving away Kashmir – Part 3
The bogey of increasing international pressure is being crafted from within to target Indian public opinion at a time when dialogue with separatists is going on and Pakistan is unraveling from within. A section from within the government and the political establishment wants to present a compromise in Jammu and Kashmir as a deliverance to the nation from a perpetual confrontation, even if it means abandoning its frontiers, its people in the state, its civilisational responsibility, central features of its eco-heritage, secularism and everything which India stands for.
Giving away Kashmir – Part 2
A section of Indian State and political establishment seem to be allowing blatant falsehoods aimed at wrecking the sovereignty of the nation in Jammu and Kashmir in such a way so that public at large, not only in J&K but in rest of India as well as internationally, is convinced that India has no case in J&K. The deliberations in the Working Groups were also conducted in a manner to undermine all legitimate imperatives of national interests. Government of India is mirroring the attitudes which the British Government adopted in the build up to the partition of India.
Giving away Kashmir – Part 1
During former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's regime, a USA based Kashmiri secessionist leader, lobbyist and fund-raiser, Farooq Kathwari, arrived in India. He came with the full knowledge of the Indian government in March 1999, carrying a series of proposals for the creation of an independent Kashmiri State. At that time, both USA and the Indian government underplayed his jihadi connections. His son had died in Chechnya while fighting the Russians. He met very important persons belonging to Indian intelligence service and the ruling BJP.
Do we live in a democracy?
The latest terror attack on the German Bakery in Pune shows how lightly we take the security threats. The police in Maharashtra (especially Mumbai) should have been on high alert given the intelligence inputs from the Centre about an impending terror strike. But instead of that, the police were busy maintaining law and order due to the volatile situation created by Shiv Sena against SRK's new film. The police were protecting cinema halls and rounding up Shiv Sena activists instead of addressing the terror threats.
The inside story of BJP’s leadership battle
Contrary to what its chief Mohan Bhagwat has been claiming, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is in full control of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). The way the RSS has leaned on the BJP leaders to select the next president amply proves the point I am making. With the crisis in the BJP over leadership change seems to be coming to an end, as promised in the previous posts, we bring you some more exclusive details of the raging behind-the-scenes battle over the leadership issue in the 'party with a difference'.
MNS’s rowdy act in Maharashtra Assembly
The Congress Party, it seems, has not learnt the lessons of history. By giving a long rope to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Chief Raj Thackeray and his goons the party hoped to marginalise the Shiv Sena. The strategy worked well as the results of the recently concluded state assembly polls showed. But the grand old party has failed to realise that it has created a Frankenstein's monster. The MNS leader and his violent cadres have repeatedly taken law and order in their hands in the last two years. But the Congress-NCP combine did not take any strong action against him, letting him raise the issues Shiv Sena raked up in the past and hence cutting into its votebank.
BJP’s war within: Yashwant Sinha questions party leadership
The succession war within the Bhartiya Janata Party has intensified as senior leaders are questioning the party's decision to reward those who should have taken the responsibility for the humiliating defeat in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls. After Jaswant Singh, another former foreign minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha wrote a letter to the BJP president and blamed the top leadership for ignoring grassroots leaders like him.