It seemed magical that the ticklish issue of fixing liability in the Indo-US civil nuclear deal (in the event of a nuclear accident) which had been hanging fire for over six years was seemingly resolved over a cup of tea when US President Obama met Prime Minister Modi recently on a much-heralded visit to India.
Analysts had at that time pointed out that the devil may lie in the fine print since not much was known of the details of the agreement. There is now some clarity on the issue but a final agreement may still be elusive for now.
It turns out that US suppliers of nuclear reactors and parts will not be directly liable in case of a nuclear accident nor can they be sued by Indian nuclear operators unless the contract they sign clearly states it. In actual practice, there is no way the suppliers would accept any liability especially when the Indian government has now assured the US and other suppliers that their liability would be paid out of an “insurance pool” of about $250 million (about Rs 1,500 crore) to be funded equally by the Indian government and the government-owned insurance companies.
Perhaps with some persuasion, the US government could have agreed to contribute something to the “insurance pool” but the fact is that it has accepted no such proposition.
Hard bargainers as the Americans are, they have protected their flanks completely. The only concession to India is that no “tracking” of supplied nuclear material would be allowed in India. This too is not explicitly stated in the Indian government’s Press release though External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said there would be no bilateral safeguards. The cold reality, however, is that IAEA safeguards would continue to apply.
It is quite on the cards that there would be vociferous protests from the Opposition over the government’s statement. How much of an impact this would have on the future of the nuclear agreement remains to be seen. The saving grace for the government is that despite their antipathy towards each other, the BJP and the Congress are broadly on the same page so far as this issue is concerned.
