New Delhi:
Across the political spectrum, the verdict in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy has elicited reactions that suggest leaders are disappointed and aggrieved.
The sentence - two years in prison for eight executives of Union Carbide India (one of whom died during the course of the trial) - has been described widely as insulting for the surviving victims of the world's worst industrial disaster, and the activists who have spent 25 years fighting for some sort of justice for them.
It would be hard to contest that their anger is entirely justified. Warren Anderson, who was the top executive of Union Carbide Corporation when the gas leak from his pesticide plant choked Bhopal, lives in an elite neighbourhood in New York after ignoring a series of court summons and charges. An extradition request from India was flatly rejected by the US in 2003. In India, those convicted have been granted bail already, and will appeal against their sentence in a higher court. (Read: Case against Anderson not closed, says Moily)
But in some ways, the most disappointing part of this verdict and its sentence, is the surprise expressed by India's politicians. "I'm anguished... the verdict is so unsatisfactory," said Jairam Ramesh, the Environment Minister. "New facts have come to light," added the BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad. (Read: Jairam 'anguished', says no more Bhopals)
In 1984, the Congress, with Arjun Singh as Chief Minister, was in power in Madhya Pradesh and the party also ruled at the Centre. Anderson arrived in India to inspect the disaster site and four days later he was released on bail and was given the chief minister's plane to leave Bhopal. By this time, more than 3,000 people had died; Anderson himself had been formally accused of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Like some sort of visiting dignitary, Anderson stopped in Delhi to meet with President Giani Zail Singh, then flew home.
After that, an officer who headed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the Bhopal tragedy, says he was asked in 1994 by the government to drop the attempt to bring Anderson back to face trial.
"We received communication from MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) that we should not pursue the extradition matter of Warren Anderson," says BR Lall.
In 2003, a US court rejected India's request for Anderson's extradition. Today, both the Congress and the BJP government claim that they fought that verdict zealously, but there's little offered by either as evidence of that.
The fight for justice, for greater compensation, for acceptance of responsibility by a giant corporate was depleted irreversibly in 1989, when the Supreme Court asked Union Carbide and the government to come to a settlement on compensation of 470 million dollars from the US-based company. That's less than 500 dollars per victim. Insufficient to cover even the costs of medical treatment of those who survived. The Congress governments at the Centre and the state did not ask for a review of this. The Bhopal victims challenged the settlement.
In 1996, the Supreme Court also accepted the appeal of the Carbide executives charged with culpable homicide. The charges against them were dropped to criminal negligence - which carries with it a maximum sentence of two years in prison.
The government did not ask for a review of this Supreme Court decision either, a point latched onto by Justice AM Ahmadi, who had headed that bench, when he defended his judgement on Wednesday. "According to me the only charge that could have been applied at that time was 304A...At that time nobody protested...they could have asked for a review of the judgement, but nobody did," he said.
Again, the government did not ask the court to reconsider this. By this time the Centre had a Third Front government with HD Deve Gowda as Prime Minister.
In recent years, governments seem to have extended their complicity in letting Union Carbide off the hook. Again, the catalogue of grievances extends across parties.
Some years after the disaster, the Congress state government led by Digvijay Singh took back the Carbide plant with tonnes of toxic waste still on it - some estimates claim the non-functioning plant had 4000 tons of hazardous waste - when the original lease clearly said that Carbide would have to return the land in the same condition that it was leased to it.
Today, Carbide is back in India as Dow Chemicals, and its battery of prominent lawyers have included the spokesperson for the Congress, Abhishek Manu Singhvi. While he was not available for comment, Singhvi was defended by partyman and minister Salman Khursheed, who said, "People wear different professional hats."
What has followed since the verdict on Monday is the usual passing of the buck. On Wednesday, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of the BJP blamed the Congress for not fighting the Supreme Court's contentious decisions, and promised a new and ardent campaign for more appropriate action against Carbide executives.
"It doesn't look like a serious step was taken. The gas victims feel they have been cheated. On priority basis, I have spoken to the people who understand law and I have found out that by the section 71 of the IPC (Indian Penal Code),we can book the criminals for a penalty of 2 years for each death caused by the gas... so the state government has decided to appeal to increase the punishment and to bring about justice to the victims," Chouhan said.
Also See:
Bhopal verdict raises issue of corporate ethics
Bhopal tragedy: US' double standards, say some
The sentence - two years in prison for eight executives of Union Carbide India (one of whom died during the course of the trial) - has been described widely as insulting for the surviving victims of the world's worst industrial disaster, and the activists who have spent 25 years fighting for some sort of justice for them.
It would be hard to contest that their anger is entirely justified. Warren Anderson, who was the top executive of Union Carbide Corporation when the gas leak from his pesticide plant choked Bhopal, lives in an elite neighbourhood in New York after ignoring a series of court summons and charges. An extradition request from India was flatly rejected by the US in 2003. In India, those convicted have been granted bail already, and will appeal against their sentence in a higher court. (Read: Case against Anderson not closed, says Moily)
But in some ways, the most disappointing part of this verdict and its sentence, is the surprise expressed by India's politicians. "I'm anguished... the verdict is so unsatisfactory," said Jairam Ramesh, the Environment Minister. "New facts have come to light," added the BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad. (Read: Jairam 'anguished', says no more Bhopals)
In 1984, the Congress, with Arjun Singh as Chief Minister, was in power in Madhya Pradesh and the party also ruled at the Centre. Anderson arrived in India to inspect the disaster site and four days later he was released on bail and was given the chief minister's plane to leave Bhopal. By this time, more than 3,000 people had died; Anderson himself had been formally accused of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Like some sort of visiting dignitary, Anderson stopped in Delhi to meet with President Giani Zail Singh, then flew home.
After that, an officer who headed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the Bhopal tragedy, says he was asked in 1994 by the government to drop the attempt to bring Anderson back to face trial.
"We received communication from MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) that we should not pursue the extradition matter of Warren Anderson," says BR Lall.
In 2003, a US court rejected India's request for Anderson's extradition. Today, both the Congress and the BJP government claim that they fought that verdict zealously, but there's little offered by either as evidence of that.
The fight for justice, for greater compensation, for acceptance of responsibility by a giant corporate was depleted irreversibly in 1989, when the Supreme Court asked Union Carbide and the government to come to a settlement on compensation of 470 million dollars from the US-based company. That's less than 500 dollars per victim. Insufficient to cover even the costs of medical treatment of those who survived. The Congress governments at the Centre and the state did not ask for a review of this. The Bhopal victims challenged the settlement.
In 1996, the Supreme Court also accepted the appeal of the Carbide executives charged with culpable homicide. The charges against them were dropped to criminal negligence - which carries with it a maximum sentence of two years in prison.
The government did not ask for a review of this Supreme Court decision either, a point latched onto by Justice AM Ahmadi, who had headed that bench, when he defended his judgement on Wednesday. "According to me the only charge that could have been applied at that time was 304A...At that time nobody protested...they could have asked for a review of the judgement, but nobody did," he said.
Again, the government did not ask the court to reconsider this. By this time the Centre had a Third Front government with HD Deve Gowda as Prime Minister.
In recent years, governments seem to have extended their complicity in letting Union Carbide off the hook. Again, the catalogue of grievances extends across parties.
Some years after the disaster, the Congress state government led by Digvijay Singh took back the Carbide plant with tonnes of toxic waste still on it - some estimates claim the non-functioning plant had 4000 tons of hazardous waste - when the original lease clearly said that Carbide would have to return the land in the same condition that it was leased to it.
Today, Carbide is back in India as Dow Chemicals, and its battery of prominent lawyers have included the spokesperson for the Congress, Abhishek Manu Singhvi. While he was not available for comment, Singhvi was defended by partyman and minister Salman Khursheed, who said, "People wear different professional hats."
What has followed since the verdict on Monday is the usual passing of the buck. On Wednesday, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of the BJP blamed the Congress for not fighting the Supreme Court's contentious decisions, and promised a new and ardent campaign for more appropriate action against Carbide executives.
"It doesn't look like a serious step was taken. The gas victims feel they have been cheated. On priority basis, I have spoken to the people who understand law and I have found out that by the section 71 of the IPC (Indian Penal Code),we can book the criminals for a penalty of 2 years for each death caused by the gas... so the state government has decided to appeal to increase the punishment and to bring about justice to the victims," Chouhan said.
Also See:
Bhopal verdict raises issue of corporate ethics
Bhopal tragedy: US' double standards, say some
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