I am ashamed, embarrassed and bewildered at the blatant, government abetted mockery of the Indian judicial system. The lapse of 25 long years has, perhaps, reduced the status of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy to inconsequential stastics and numbers in the eyes of the Indian Government. The local court's verdict awarding the 7 accused a jail term of 2 years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh for the world's worst industrial disaster, which killed 15,134 and maimed 5.7 lakh people, was a stinging slap on the faces of those who had hoped that justice delayed wouldn't translate into justice denied.
As skeletons in the government cupboard begin to rattle, the fact that justice has been violated wilfully by those occupying the highest echelons of power, leaves one thunderstruck. PM Narasimha Rao's government's express orders to the CBI not to press for the extradition of Warren Anderson, CEO of the Union Carbide (UC), who was bailed out within six hours of his arrest and flown out of India, the paltry compensation of Rs 705 crore, reached after much haggling over the number of actual victims, the rejection of victms' plea to the welfare commissioner of Bhopal for payment of compensation as per the value of dollar in 1989... seems a concerted and premeditated effort to ensure that justice was never done to the dead as well as the survivors of this disaster.
The newspapers are replete with grotesque pictures of the 1984 tragedy, whose proportion has been described akin to a 'chemical warfare' by veteran photographer Raghu Rai in a leading English daily. Going by the reports, death came to the more fortunate. For most of the survivors, afflicted with indescribable physical deformities, life became a perfect hell. Birth defects, resulting from the methyl isocyanate leakage, continue till this day serving as a callous reminder of the havoc wreaked by the carelessness of UCL officials on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984.
Ninety-year-old Warren Anderson lives in plush mansion in the Swish Long Island neighbourhood of Bridegehampton, seccure that he will never be called to face justice in a human court of law. The United States only worry is that the Bhopal case might undo it's carefully nurtured ties with India. So, the accused is safe and sound in his country and the victims remain victims forever in their land, justice never died a more ignominous death.
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We need to ask ourselves if we have the will and the inclination to stand by our people for their rights.
ReplyDeleteVotes come in lakhs for contestants of song and dance shows. Each sms costs about Rs. 6. If people would have sent the same amount towards one constructive effort, the need for government aid would not have been required.
What messages as are we sending to our leaders? Do our leaders ever feel that they will be rejected by the country if they fail the honesty test or are they secure in the regional or other basis of their holding to power.
The payment was made by UCL. The government was then, as it is now, twiddling it's thumbs.
ReplyDeleteDivided interets prevent voters from taking a united stnd on issues of social justice when it comes to voting.
We as much as our leaders are responsible for such disastrous verdicts. The murder of a Jessica Lal was a tragedy. The murder of 5.7 lakh people is a number.