Pranab: Arjun told Anderson to leave for law and order
Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee acknowledged Sunday that the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh headed by Arjun Singh had taken the decision in December 1984 to send Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson out of Bhopal in view of the deteriorating law and order situation there following the gas disaster.
Mr Mukherjee, conceding that the Congress was in power both in New Delhi and Bhopal at the time, said: “The then Madhya Pradesh chief minister Arjun Singh made a statement published in an English daily, in which Mr Singh had said the law and order situation would have deteriorated in Bhopal... People’s frenzy was high, tempers were running high; the government had no other option than to let Anderson go out of Bhopal.”
Mr Mukherjee also indicated that the Indian government was once again exploring the possibility of getting Warren Anderson extradited. “We will explore all the possibilities of extradition, but we are not in a position to comment on the judgment of the court. We will look into the provisions of appeal,” Mr Mukherjee said, adding that the original decision to let Mr Anderson go came from the state and not the Centre.
Mr Mukherjee’s statement that the Arjun Singh government in Bhopal had no option but to let Mr Anderson leave the country has drawn flak from the Left. CPI(M) central committee member Mohammed Salim called it “unfortunate”, and asked: “How could Mr Mukherjee, a stalwart politician, give a clean chit to Arjun Singh citing the law and order situation?”
Mr Singh has so far not broken his silence on the matter since the June 7 court verdict.
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