LS-LDALL NUCLEAR 4 LST

Responding to Opposition criticism that the government
was hurriedly getting the Bill passed, Chavan said five years
had already passed since India and the US agreed on civil
nuclear cooperation.
As regards references to the visit of US President Barack
Obama in November, the minister said "France, Russia are also
our friends". French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev are also scheduled to visit India
later this year.
Chavan said the Bill also addressed the issues of
criminal liability of suppliers.
On Left concerns on joining the Convention on
Supplementary Compensation (CSC), Chavan said that the
government does not intend to join the IAEA-drafted measure
right now.
He said the government can take a decision on it at a
later date.
Earlier, the BJP extended support to the civil nuclear
liability bill but was critical of the "sleight of hand" and
"trickery" of the government in drafting the law and its
attempts to "hustle" it through in Parliament now.
"You agree to something and then 'and' comes. You agree.
Then comes 'intent'. It shows repeated instances of sleight
of hand (in drafting the law.
He also questioned the attempts to "hustle" the bill
through Parliament, Committee and the country.
Jaswant Singh (BJP) said the genesis of the bill lies in
the 2005 Indo-US nuclear agreement. "There is some hesitation
to accept the parentage of the bill," he said.
Congress member Manish Tewari said the first initiatives
for ending nuclear isolation were taken by the then External
Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh when he held talks with
US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot.
"When Manmohan Singh took over as the Prime Minister,
he only took that forward," he added.
Samajwadi Party leader Shailendra Kumar said liability
should be fixed on both supplier and operator. "We have to
bring development in the country. That is why I think
the bill is very important. We had supported the government
during the nuclear deal also".
Janta Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav said the way the
Bill has been brought about and from the efforts made by the
government, people think that the government has been in a
tearing hurry. PTI