December 18, 2025
Sagarika Ghose’s speech on The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, 2025
Mr. Vice-Chairman, Sir, on behalf of my party, All India Trinamool Congress, I rise to speak on the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025, the so-called SHANTI Bill. Sir, this Bill brings neither shanti nor security. It brings ashanti, brings Bipod, it brings khatra, it brings grave danger. This Bill brings danger, disguised as development; cronyism, disguised as reform; surrender, disguised as strategy. This Bill is not just flawed. This Bill is fundamentally dangerous. Let me be clear. We are not debating whether India should pursue nuclear energy. As the hon. Member before me said, ‘India has always pursued nuclear energy responsibly for decades’. India has always been a responsible nuclear State. But, as a country, are we now prepared to abdicate our sovereign responsibility, gamble with public safety, and place one of the most sensitive sectors of the nation at the mercy of crony capitalism and Government-friendly oligarchs, as well as foreign pressure? Sir, this Bill is not a reform; it is recklessness. This Bill is not for the public; it is for profit. This Bill is not about sovereignty; it is about surrender. The ruling party must also remember that you, Mr. Minister, once accused Dr. Manmohan Singh Government of a sell-out on the Civil Nuclear Deal, on the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Deal. Today, forget sell-out, you are rushing through this crucial Bill without any parliamentary oversight. That is why you are rushing through this Bill. Sir, the Government wants to produce 100 GWs of nuclear power capacity by 2047, under the Viksit Bharat programme. But, the way it is trying to do this is through privatization; in fact, the oligarchization of nuclear power. Privatization can be benign if there is a level playing field, if there are checks, if it is open for all. But, in the name of privatisation, this Government consistently promotes oligarchization, the rule of the oligarchs. The SHANTI Bill removes restrictions on private entry by allowing any company or person authorized by the Central Government to establish and operate a nuclear installation. This is a huge policy shift, as was pointed out, and ends seven decades of State exclusivity over nuclear power. Let’s admit that the scale of investment needed for setting up such an industry can only be undertaken by the high-profile cronies of this Government. And, the question arises, is cronyism the reason why this Government is paving the way for them? Why not go in for public-private partnership instead? And we all know, Sir, who this Government’s favourite oligarchs are. From the vision of the father of our nuclear programme, Homi J. Bhabha, to the resolve shown at both Pokhran 1 and 2, India’s nuclear programme has always been deliberately kept under public control. This is because nuclear power can be so deadly, so deadly, that the cost of failure is absolute. One mistake can poison the land, the water, and lives for generations to come. Nuclear energy is not a normal commercial activity. It is not telecom, it is not aviation, it is not even defence manufacturing. It is a strategic national asset, asset bound up with national security, and the risks are existential for humankind. The risks are catastrophic. Should profit maximisation and cost-cutting be the aim of such a sector? At the core of the Bill is a highly diluted liability regime, a reworked liability framework under Chapter III, which caps the maximum compensation for any single nuclear incident with the operator’s liability, limited to installation-specific ceilings, set out in the second schedule. So, the Doctrine of Absolute Liability held by the Supreme Court in the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster is being limited. The Bill repeals the existing Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act of 2010, uprooting decades-old legal protections around nuclear accidents, weakening accountability for suppliers. The liability cap, 300 million Special Drawing Rights or SDR, a few hundred million US dollars or ₹3,900 crore, is absurdly insufficient compared to the catastrophic cost of a major nuclear accident. As per the SHANTI Bill, the sovereign top-up is discretionary in form and fund design, not automatic, in comparison to what existed under the CLND Act. This means that beyond the limit of ₹3,900 crore as per the second schedule, the Government will be liable. And, this is discretionary in function. The liability is discretionary! The Clause is, thus, highly regressive, as compensation beyond the given amount becomes optional, leaving communities and victims helpless. The citizens of India will be rendered helpless. Nuclear disasters take place on a vast scale, Sir. In the 1986 Chernobyl Catastrophe, the property damage was $7 Billion, with 350,000 people resettled. In the Fukushima Daiichi Disaster of 2011, the cleanup and compensation cost $180 billion, with 160,000 temporarily or permanently evacuated. So, why this cap on liability, given the high urban population density around sites like Tarapur and Kudankulam? The 2010 Act clearly defined the operator as a Government or Government company and allowed “right of recourse”, Section 17, against suppliers for defective components. The SHANTI Bill redefines operators to include any company and allows liability transfer via contract, making supplier liability voluntary. The SHANTI Bill shifts liability and recourse rules towards contract rather than statute, meaning, suppliers can be insulated by fine print in contract and victims’ ability to seek redress becomes uncertain. This is because contracts will be negotiated from an unequal bargaining position. It is terribly unfair to the potential victims. But you only understand the language of profit, not the language of the people. Profit and nuclear safety cannot coexist, Sir. One rewards cost cutting, the other demands zero tolerance for error. These are irreconcilable philosophies. And, the helpless Indian citizen will pay the price. Nuclear accidents are not imaginary fears. Chernobyl was not the result of mere technical failure, it was weak oversight and political pressure to prioritize output over safety. As a result, human lives were destroyed for generations. For generations, human lives were destroyed. Nuclear radiation does not negotiate. Nuclear radiation does not forgive. Nuclear radiation does not respect contracts and corporate liability clauses. We still remember the photo of the lifeless baby lying in the Bhopal mud. SHANTI removes explicit acknowledgement of long-term radiation injury and allows the Government to exempt facilities deemed “insignificant risk.” This is a violation, Sir, of the ILO Convention no. 115 on radiation protection. The Bill also reflects a blind and obsessive push for nuclear expansion, without adequate debate on alternatives or consequences. India is blessed with solar, wind, hydro and storage potential. A responsible energy transition demands balance, not fixation on the one source. Energy security cannot come at the cost of human security. When safety audits slow down profits, which one will be sacrificed, Sir? Which one will be sacrificed? Safety audits, or, profits? When maintenance budgets threaten balance sheets, what will be cut? When emergency preparedness looks expensive, who will take responsibility? The global trend is to strengthen and not weaken safety norms. But this Bill, Mr. Minister, is going in the opposite direction to what the global trend is. But the real shocker of the Bill is this. This sudden enthusiasm for opening India’s nuclear sector coincides very conveniently with the intense foreign pressure, particularly from the United States, to allow private and foreign companies’ access to India’s nuclear market. Under the existing DPIIT FDI Policy, private entities in atomic energy can attract up to 49 per cent foreign investment. By removing the “Government company only” clause, the SHANTI Bill enables such FDI. This is startling. Will foreign entities now gain control over one of the most strategic resources of our country? Is India’s nuclear law being rewritten to suit foreign commercial interests? Is Parliament being asked to legalize what was politically promised abroad? Is national policy being shaped to please Washington rather than protect the citizens of India? We must again remember the slogan, shouted with great enthusiasm by the leader of this Government, “Abki baar Trump Sarkar”. That is what their motto is, “Abki baar Trump Sarkar”. This Bill cannot be rushed through Parliament. This Bill requires discussion. It requires extensive inputs from stakeholders. It requires a long legislative process. It is a shame that the Prime Minister is not in the House when this crucial Bill is being discussed. Citizens of India’s lives are at stake. Existentially, humankind is at stake. Nuclear radiation is a possible fallout. How can this Bill be passed? How can this Bill be rushed through Parliament with four hours’ notice, with a four-hour debate? It cannot happen, Sir. This Bill has to be thought about more. There have to be more discussions. There have to be greater consultations with stakeholders. Otherwise, the lives of the citizens of India are at stake. The lives of helpless citizens of India are at stake. Sir, I want to point out to you one important fact here that the nuclear installations that exist in our country are all in tribal areas, in the tribal regions. Nuclear mining, primarily, for uranium, significantly impacts tribal regions, globally, notably, in India’s Jharkhand, in the Jadugoda area, where indigenous communities — Santhal, Munda, Ho — suffer severe health crises like cancers, deformities, and contaminated water from mining. Are we going to let these helpless vulnerable communities be at the mercy of profit maximization of oligarchs? Is that what we are trying to do here? This Bill cannot go through in this shoddy, rushed manner. It needs much greater deliberation, much greater discussion. I would urge the Minister who is sitting here, to please, please rethink about it. The lives of Indians are at stake. The lives of citizens are at stake. This Bill must not go through in this form. We need greater discussion. Thank you, Sir. Jai Hind; Vande Mataram; Jai Bangla.
