The Modi government has perfected the art of finding acronyms that serve a solitary purpose — brand-building. If some of these acronyms are to rename old schemes and claim them as its own, others are to hide the government’s real intent. The SHANTI Bill, 2025 is an excellent example of the obfuscating variety of acronyms. Spell it out — Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India — and you won’t see shanti (peace) anywhere on the horizon.

Marketed as a peaceful roadmap for nuclear energy growth, the name belies an unsettling shift in India’s nuclear liability regime and governance. The changes it proposes will have broad implications for public safety and accountability. It reverses longstanding legal safeguards designed to protect the victims of nuclear incidents and preserve India’s sovereignty over its nuclear programme. Hailed by the US administration, the Bill exposes the double-standards of a government that is always invoking ‘national interest’.

Introduced in Parliament on 10 December during the winter session, the Bill was not referred to any joint parliamentary committee, select committee or standing committee — mechanisms that exist so that complex legislation may be rigorously examined. It sailed through both Houses of Parliament in 10 days, was granted presidential assent on 20 December and notified as law on 22 December.

The obvious question is: why the haste? Was it meant to outpace domestic opposition or reassure international nuclear vendors eager for high-value contracts? To grasp the magnitude of what is being dismantled, one must revisit the existing legal regime — the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act of 2010.

That law emerged from the shadow of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, which claimed thousands of lives, injured millions and exposed glaring gaps in industrial........

© National Herald