It was mere curiosity that prompted me to know what actually happened behind the world’s biggest Industrial disaster, Bhopal Tragedy -1984, which occurred even before I was born.
From the little knowledge I have, I perceived it as a major industrial accident occurred due to some sort of negligence from the management.
But now I can’t reason all that happened under a single term “negligence” nor I can describe it in one sentence.
I will be quoting directly some text from few of the articles I have gone through because I don’t know how to put all this in my own words, without hating the country I belongs to.
So, let it be more factual……
Those were the beginning of the age when India greeted foreign investments as a part of “National & Industrial Development”. There was absolutely no question of rejecting a proposal put forward by the biggest chemical companies in the world – Union Carbide to start a plant in India.
From the day 1 of its entry, all the rules and regulations were changed to accommodate the giant fish without even giving a glimpse on the basic safety and security measures to be followed in starting a chemical plant in an urban area. India was an easy place for them to buy and start the unit because all our authorities cared for, was some extra cash in their pockets.
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As per the records:
• In 1979, zonal regulations in Bhopal were changed so that Carbide could set up a plant, manufacturing deadly pesticides in the heart of the city's most densely populated areas.
• In December 1981, a gas leak at the Union Carbide plant killed one worker.
• A year later, in January 1982, there was another gas leak in which 25 workers were hospitalized. Workers protested that there was design defect in the plant that made it unsafe but the protests were ignored.
• Two years later Union Carbide sent its US experts to do an audit. The team noticed leakage in the plant.
• Union Carbide CEO, Anderson knew about the 1982 safety audit of the Bhopal plant, which identified 30 major hazards and that they were not fixed in Bhopal but were fixed at the company's identical plant in the US
• In September 1982, UCIL de-linked the alarm from the siren warning system so that only their employees would be warned about the leakage, and not the neighboring residents.
• A year later, another leak was reported from the plant which left 100 residents hospitalized.
• On March 4, 1983, Bhopal lawyer Shahnawaz Khan served a legal notice on UCIL. But on April 29, 1983, in a written reply, UCIL's Works Manager denied the allegations as baseless.
• Between 1983 and 1984, the safety manuals were re-written to permit among other things switching off the units that cooled the Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas and prevent chemical reactions.
• On December 3, 1984, the disaster occurred when gas leaked in huge amounts. No warning given to the residents of the leak or what precautions to take.
For three years, Bhopal journalist Rajkumar Keswani kept warning the administration that the Union Carbide plant was unsafe. His last article Bhopal Sitting on a Volcano was published just months before the tragedy.
In fact, the then Chief Minister Arjun Singh assured the Madhya Pradesh Assembly that he personally inspected the Carbide plant, and all is well…………………
On December 3, 1984, the extremely toxic methyl isocyanate started leaking from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Close to 800,000 people were exposed to the deadly gas, 3,800 people died and thousands became disabled, with many dying thereafter.
So this is the story about the biggest industrial tragedy in the world. There are no comments to put because the feeling this tragedy have kicked in you or me is a mixture – a mixture of shock, grief, pity, anger, fright and frustration .
Humans can easily forget and forgive, especially Indians. The great Indian value system!
So we chose to forget and keep everything to ourselves…
Going on… What happened next??
Circulation of various newspapers and magazines increased for few months with colorful cover pages. Stories after stories came with pathetic pictures of victims, debates carried out on every corner scrutinizing the reasons and impact and government busy handling to ‘normalizing’ the situation.
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Anderson flew into Bhopal four days after the gas leak. On the same day, 7 December, 1984, he was arrested on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. A few hours later, Anderson was escorted like a visiting dignitary to Chief Minister Arjun Singh's plane and was flown to Delhi. Soon, he was out of India, never to return.
The United States has declined to extradite him, citing a lack of evidence!
Court actions so far:
Dec 4, 1984: A case is registered against Union Carbide. The chairman Warren Anderson is arrested but later released on bail by the Madhya Pradesh police.
1985: India claims $3.3 billion from Union Carbide in an American court.
1989: Indian government and Union Carbide strike out-of-court deal, Union Carbide gives $ 470 million
1992: Part of $ 470 million disbursed among victims. Anderson declared fugitive from law for ignoring court summons
2001: Union Carbide refuses to take responsibility for former Indian arm’s liabilities
2004: Supreme Court orders government to pay out rest of $ 470 million paid by Union Carbide as compensation
June 7, 2010: The verdict: Eight persons comprising the Indian management of UCIL convicted; Warren Anderson not named.
It took 25 years to convict eight persons, with a possible jail sentence of a maximum of just two years.
They were held guilty under Sections 304-A (causing death by negligence), 304-II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 336, 337 and 338 (gross negligence) of the Indian Penal Code.
Inside Story:
A Bhopal judge ordered that Union Carbide's properties should be attached to court because their executives were ignoring court summons. Two years after,
Justice A M Ahmadi reversed that decision. The company was allowed to sell its properties. The agreement was that the money would be used to set up a trust and a 500-bed hospital which would treat victims of the tragedy at no cost to them.
CBI had filed a charge sheet against Anderson and all the other accused under Section 304(2) where the maximum punishment is 10 years. But the case was converted to 304 A - which is meant for car accidents - by then Chief Justice of India A M Ahmadi.
Two years after that, in 1998, Justice Ahmadi became the chairman of the hospital trust for life. Ahmadi claims the Supreme Court asked him to chair it. But in truth,
the appointment was made by the Trust constituted by Union Carbide.
At present, the hospital set up for the victims has become a super specialty medical facility for the rich …….
Now, all are trying to find out the person who helped Anderson to flee from the country!!
Isn’t it obvious that all the supreme authorities at that point of time were helping him?
Be it Prime Minister, Chief Minister or Chief Justice!!!
Why pointing figures on each other and try to search in dark when all know the answer?
Why rehabilitation of the suffered people still not complete?
Why we are investing crores on researching Moon & Mars when 1000s are dying here like worms?
Why are we not trying to solve the current issue rather than trying to make headlines?
• Company abandoned the polluted factory site allowing it to poison Bhopal residents.
• The company won’t disclose the composition of the poisonous gas (the company still claims this is a trade secret), thus preventing doctors from properly treating the 120,000 people who are still sick.
• Company lawyers ensured survivors only got between US$300-500 compensation each, if they were 'lucky', for their ruined lives.
• Dow Chemical took over Union Carbide in 2001 but it claims Union Carbide has 'settled' the issue of Bhopal
• Despite being wanted in India and by Interpol, Indian and the US authorities have been inactive for the last 18 years on extradition of Anderson.US authorities claimed they could not find Anderson and India has not pursued his extradition from the US for fear of damaging US investment and trade.
A US journal wrote empathetically on the situation:
“Possibly spurred by Anderson's discovery and growing protests at home, the Indian Government has formally filed an extradition request with the US. Better 18 years late than never. The order is likely to be ignored by the US and, no doubt, India hopes it can relieve pressure at home while relying on the US inaction”
This is the image the Great India reflects………
Be proud to be an Indian……
