NEW DELHI: Congress MP Manish Tewari on Wednesday rose in the Lok Sabha to oppose the Bill, noting that it replaced two existing legislations.
He questioned no liability clause on the foreign suppliers while opening up the nuclear sector. How is it going to help India, he asked.
He outlined the history of India’s nuclear programme, saying that it was introduced by Jawaharlal Nehru. He notes the contributions of Dr. Homi Bhabha, and then referred to India’s first nuclear test, the Smiling Buddha, done under the aegis of PM Indira Gandhi.
Following this, the London club, or NSG, a group of 14 countries which had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, sought to deny India access to nuclear technology, he notes. Sanctions further tightened after the second nuclear test under Atal Behari Vajpayee, and it was not till the UPA government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh that the “nuclear apartheid” was broken, he said, adding that in July 2005, the Indo-U.S nuclear deal was initiated. He noted that India has still not gotten membership of the NSG.
He said when the UPA government was trying to break through the nuclear apartheid, the ruling party members brought a no-confidence motion. You tried to derail India’s nuclear programme due to political reasons, he asserted, leading to an uproar from treasury benches.
Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Atomic Energy, moved that the Sustainable Harnessing of Atomic Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill be taken into consideration.
He said this is a very important and historic bill. The Father of India’s nuclear programme, Dr. Homi Bhabha, said that this was to be dedicated to peaceful purposes, and this is now made possible due to PM Narendra Modi, he said.
“We need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and increase nuclear energy production,” he said, adding that in some ways, nuclear energy is better than renewable energy, because the latter may not be available 24×7.
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