Tragedy of a tragedy

Forget Babri Masjid, it’s an assumed shame. Think Bhopal, 3 December 1984. If the ghastly tragedy, triggered by the leakage of methyl-isocyanate (MIC) from the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal, will go down as the biggest industrial disaster in the country, then the subsequent handling of the entire catastrophe and the case in the court will remain as modern India’s biggest moment of dishonour.

.

The noxious gas from the Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal killed over 3,500 people instantly.Thousands were severely affected and handicapped. NGOs estimate that the death toll rose sharply to 10,000 within 72 hours and that the number now stands at over 25,000.  Twentyfive years hence that cataclysm, the survivors are still clutching at the straws of imagined hope, while the high honchos of the company, who should have been paying a price for the callous calamity, have been let murderously scot free. Actually, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy has been lost in the collective consciousness of the nation. India is yet to extradite the main accused, American Warren Anderson, who never appeared in a court to face trail. In a case that seems to be going nowhere, India issued a fresh arrest warrant in July this year and the Ministry of External Affairs is pursuing the matter with the US administration. Anderson was chief executive officer of the Union Carbide Corp (UCC), now owned by Dow Chemical Co, when the disaster unfolded in the most poignant manner possible.  It was found during investigation that UCC was to provide safety measures to store MIC as well as its operating standards to UCIL. But due to inherent defects in the design of the UCIL plant, which were in the knowledge of the accused persons, MIC gas leaked, resulting in the death of thousands of human beings and numerous animals besides having grievous impact on many more thousands. After the disaster, a case was registered by the Madhya Pradesh police against officials of UCIL. It was transferred to the CBI on 6 December, 1984. Three years later, the CBI filed its charge sheet in the court of the additional session judge in Bhopal under Indian Penal Code sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 429 (mischief by killing, poisoning, maiming animals) against Anderson and seven other people. However, the Supreme Court later amended the charges to sections 304-A (causing death by negligence), 336 (acts endangering life or personal safety of others), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by acts endangering life or personal safety of others). To cut a long story short, not a single accused has been sentenced so far. All the Indian accused are out on bail and Anderson has not appeared before the court. And, folks, that’s the problem of modern India. No will. No strength of nerve. No sense of righteous indignation. No empathy for justice. . From Afzal Guru to Ajmal Kasab to Anderson. They all represent the same evil, to which the State acquiesces only too easily. The martyrs of Mumbai and Bhopal are the victims of the same enemy: Complacency and criminal connivance. It’s a sham. And it’s a shame, too.