Bhopal Gas Tragedy or Poor Man's Mockery?

Bhopal Gas Tragedy took place on December 3rd 1984, officially killed 15,000 innocent people, in reality killed many more. In 1989 Supreme Court of India happily brokered a meager $470 million settlement between the Indian state and Union Carbide as a compensation for little over 1 lakh victims, where the actual number of victims was over five times. Today in the year 2010 the industrial site of disaster is yet to be cleared of the toxic waste and the people living around are still deprived of proper drinking water. But why has this ruckus cropped up now in 2010, 26 years later? Primarily because of two reasons, one being the fact that a lower court handed out a verdict on gas tragedy just recently and secondly because of the omnipresent starving media. And trust me this is one of the rare occasions when the role of media to me seems app laudable and I am pretty sure if Mr Anderson would have dared to flee away from India today, media wouldn't have allowed to let that happen even in anybody's distant dream, but those days were the days in and around emergency so to even think of such a scenario is nothing less than a brazen audacity.

But the million dollar question is who let Mr Anderson flee away from India? Oh, is it actually a million dollar question, its not even worth a penny. Obviously the Arjun Singh led state government and Rajiv Gandhi led Congress government at the center facilitated that. But the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Mr Arjun Singh has adopted a buddha-esque silence and the octogenarian politician is not even caring to clarify an ounce on the debacle and the then circumstances. But what is outrageously horrendous and hard to believe is that fact that Mr Anderson was actually flown out in a state government plane when he was charged under sec 304(culpable homicide not amounting to murder) which were later deleted in the trial by the state police. Obviously the nation has the right to know that under whose instructions these decisions were taken but when in 2010 the government's spokesperson says that those decisions were taken keeping in mind the tense situation in Bhopal which might have eventually led to the murder of Mr Anderson by the furious mob, it further saddens our hearts that the government is so concerned about the well being of the murderer and not at all about those lakhs of innocent people who lost there lives for no fault of theirs.

And what about the hysteria which is prevalent within the Congress for the alleged involvement of Rajiv Gandhi in the escape of Mr Anderson or for that matter any scandalous issue. For the Congress who is umbilically tied to the Gandhi dynasty, the very mention of Rajiv is enough to spark off an angry 'how dare you drag Rajivji into this' response. And same is the affinity of opposition who never lets away an opportunity slip by to embarrass the first family of Indian politics. Though I don't have anything against any of the Gandhi superstars but this sycophantic hysteria on every issue irrespective of its meritocratic valuation epitomizes injustice by all means and yields unsurmountable comical extravaganza more often than not.

Certainly Bhopal is not the lone incident embarking a loose stand by the government on a serious issue, Babri Masjid, Kashmir deadlock, Godhra Massacre are some of the other instances showcasing government's inability to handle key issues with a vengeance. And another reason of this loose stand on Bhopal Tragedy could be a shattered state of India at that point in time due to Indira Gandhi's assassination weeks ago, Sikh terrorism posing a serious threat, north eastern states boiling with unrest and bloody genocide going around across the national capital. And also in those days United States was enjoying an exceptional supremacy over most parts of the world.So expecting a tough stand against an American multinational at that point was a bit too much. But even then the manner in which the victims have been compensated is more of a mockery than a compensation, the style in which the Indian court has dealt with Mr Anderson suggests that he was this country's beloved son and those lakhs of innocent victims belonged to a foreign land, and last but not the least the manner in which the government is defending itself rather than taking some concrete action is nothing short of a joke.

Though the newly formed Group of Ministers have promised a speedy resolution to this age long injustice.But their ambitious proposal of extraditing Mr Anderson to India is nothing short of an ambition to one day land on SUN, though definitely the least they can do is to allocate a substantial compensation to each of those long suffering victims. But still the damage and loss caused on that night is irreparable.

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