A US defence law signed by President Donald Trump has handed the Congress means to claim that India’s new nuclear law was rewritten in Delhi with Washington firmly in mind.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh alleged that recent changes to India’s nuclear liability framework were pushed through Parliament to align domestic law with US interests, citing a document signed by Trump.
Ramesh pointed to a provision inside the United States’ National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, which Trump signed into law. The Act runs over 3,100 pages. Page 1,912, Ramesh pointed out, refers to a “joint assessment between the United States and India on Nuclear Liability Rules”.
“Now we know for sure why the prime minister bulldozed the SHANTI Bill through Parliament earlier this week,” Ramesh wrote on X, referring to the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025.
The legislation Ramnesh said, “did away with key provisions of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 that had been passed unanimously by Parliament”.
The nuclear liability law is believed to have been one of the major reasons the US-India nuclear deal signed by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not fructify.
“It was to restore SHANTI with his once good friend,” Ramesh added, in a swipe at Modi’s public bonhomie with Trump. “The SHANTI Act may well be called the TRUMP Act – The Reactor Use and Management Promise Act.”
Ramesh attached a link to the US law, highlighting the section that mandates the US secretary of state to establish and maintain, within the US-India Strategic Security Dialogue, a joint consultative mechanism with India.
The mechanism is tasked with assessing the implementation of the 2008 civil nuclear cooperation agreement, discussing opportunities for India “to align domestic nuclear liability rules with international norms”, and developing strategies for bilateral and multilateral diplomatic engagement around those changes.
The Congress leader’s comments after the Rajya Sabha cleared the SHANTI Bill, following its passage in the Lok Sabha earlier in the week. The Union government has said the law is aimed at reducing India’s dependence on fossil fuels and expanding the country’s atomic energy capacity, including by opening the tightly controlled civil nuclear sector to private participation.
During the debate in the Upper House on Thursday, Ramesh opposed the Bill and argued that it was being rushed without adequate consultation on a matter of long-term national importance.
He also accused the BJP-led government of abandoning the position taken by its own senior leaders when the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act was enacted in 2010.
When the SHANTI bill was being debated in Parliament, Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor had strongly opposed it, calling it a “dangerous leap into privatised nuclear energy.”
What kind of law is this, Tharoor had asked, citing the bill’s cap on liability, burden on taxpayers, possibility of exclusion of genuine victims of nuclear accident, and that such victims would not be able to file complaints.
Ramesh also urged the government to standardise India’s indigenous 700 MW nuclear reactors rather than importing designs from multiple foreign vendors.
“We are self-reliant in 700 MW plants,” he said, warning that a “vendor-driven bill” could meet the same fate as the three farm laws that were repealed after widespread protests.