No More Hiroshimas and Nagasakis! No More Bhopals!

Say No to Civil Nuclear Liability Bill!

Say No To 'Strategic' Slavery to US Imperialism!

On August 6 2010, it will be 65 years since the world's first atomic bomb was exploded when the United States flattened the city of Hiroshima in Japan, deliberately killing tens of thousands of civilians. Three days later, the US bombed Nagasaki. The victims of the bombings died a terrible death; the survivors were maimed, poisoned and deformed for generations to come. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are stark reminders of the US' willingness to perpetrate the worst possible acts of terror in order to secure its imperialist hegemony. They are also reminders of the horrors that nuclear weapons and even civilian nuclear disasters can cause.

In India, the Bhopal gas disaster of 1984 showed us how US corporations like Union Carbide (now transformed into Dow Chemicals) violate safety laws to poison and kill Indian people. The leakage of poisonous gases caused death of thousands as well as blindness, deformities and birth defects in generations till the present. Even today the people of the affected area are forced to consume poisoned ground water.

Indian governments, in a shameful display of servility to US imperialism and corporate arrogance, continue to shield Dow Chemicals and those responsible for the Bhopal tragedy. And now, close on the heels of the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, the UPA is bringing in the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill that proposes to ensure the repeat of the shame and injustice of Bhopal.

What does the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill propose?

• • · This bill will allow nuclear reactor suppliers (many of whom will be US companies) virtual freedom from having to compensate the victims in case of any disaster.

· Further, the Government proposes to bring in private operators for the nuclear reactors and the draft bill proposes a ridiculously low amount of Rs 500 crore as the maximum amount that the foreign or Indian private operator of a nuclear plant can be made to pay in the case of an accident. Any amount above this cap will be paid by the Government which means the Indian taxpayer will subsidise private players responsible for nuclear disasters!

· The cap for overall financial liability for a nuclear accident is fixed at Rs 2140 crore an amount that is extremely low and inadequate in contrast with the scale of most nuclear accidents.

We saw in Bhopal how the victims have been shamefully cheated even of their due compensation. A nuclear disaster is likely to be far larger in scale, far more terrible than the Bhopal disaster. Now, the Nuclear Liability Bill proposes that just as Union Carbide-Dow have evaded having to clean up the disaster site or adequately compensate the victims, nuclear reactor companies and private operators of nuclear reactors in India too will be free to loot, pollute and scoot! Clearly, this bill has been scripted to suit the interests of the US nuclear industry, at the cost of endangering the lives and health of Indian people.

On August 6th every year, democratic forces all over the world pledge never to forgive or forget the horrors of the devastation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This year, let us resolve to observe August 6 (Hiroshima Day) all over the country as a day of protest.

Let us tell the UPA Government

NO to more Hiroshimas, Nagasakis and Bhopals!

NO to protection for corporate criminals!

Stop the shameful game of jeopardizing health and human lives to protect corporate profits and imperialist interests!

Scrap the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill!