New Delhi: Was Warren Anderson guaranteed that no action would be taken against him when he visited Bhopal days after the city's gas tragedy? As multiple reports suggest that was the case, politicians and bureaucrats are offering conflicting versions of exactly who made this offer - one that has compromised justice, and has recently become a political albatross.
Anderson was the CEO of Union Carbide, which owned the pesticide plant that malfunctioned in 1984, poisoning Bhopal's air, killing thousands. (
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In an interview to NDTV, Gordon Streeb, who was a senior US diplomat in Delhi in 1984, says it was the Ministry of External Affairs who told Anderson that he would be provided safe passage when he landed in India. By this time, Anderson had been accused of culpable homicide not amounting to murder along with other Carbide executives. (
Read: Centre arranged Anderson release, says US diplomat)
Streeb says India's Foreign Secretary had assured him that he would not be arrested in India.
Anderson flew into Bhopal, was placed under house arrest, and then released suddenly. He was flown back to Delhi on the official plane of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Arjun Singh. Anderson never returned to India, defying a series of court summons.
Streeb shares this version of the pre-trip arrangements between Anderson and the Government of India. "We got a call from Union Carbide suggesting that Mr Anderson would like to come to India to show the concern of the Corporation at the highest levels for the victims and to get some sense of what had happened at the plant. But both Union Carbide and I were concerned...we did not want to have Mr Anderson come to India to make this gesture... and to put himself at risk of being arrested or whatever. So, based on that I checked with the Ministry of External Affairs, and to the best of my knowledge, most of my conversations, or all of them were with the Foreign Secretary, and they got back to me and said yes, they agree that it would be useful for Mr Anderson to come to display and demonstrate Union Carbide's concern and that they would provide him assurance that nothing would happen to him during this visit."
Streeb says that when he found out that Anderson had been arrested, he contacted the Ministry of External Affairs, which intervened.
The Congress has adamantly denied that the central government, led by Rajiv Gandhi, played any role in providing Anderson a safety exit.
That claim was attacked by the BJP on Thursday, which cited US newspaper reports from 1984. On the same day that Anderson landed in India, these articles showed Carbide sharing a statement with American journalists that stated the Indian government had assured them that Anderson would not be arrested during his tour. (
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