Poisonous justice

So Warren Anderson, 89, chief accused of the Bhopal gas disaster, is still “absconding”. After a quarter century, the verdict in the Bhopal gas disaster case didn’t mention him. But the case against Warren Anderson is not closed, our government assures us. They will get to the bottom of it.
Sadly, when it comes to the Bhopal gas disaster, our government is not far from rock bottom. For more than 25 years successive governments have insulted the citizens they claim to represent by blocking justice for the victims of the world’s largest industrial disaster. The Bhopal tragedy has killed 22,000 and injured almost 6,00,000. Thousands continue to be killed silently as toxins contaminate drinking water, creep into vegetation, food, into the baby in the womb and mother’s milk.
Most of it was caused by 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) that leaked from the pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) on the night of December 2-3, 1984. But locals are still being poisoned by toxic waste dumped around the factory which has leached into the soil and groundwater. Our government has not cleaned up the killer waste that it accepted from Union Carbide, nor has it got Dow Chemical, which now owns Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), to do so.
So while foaming at the mouth over paltry two-year sentences for a few UCIL employees held responsible and screaming ourselves hoarse over the extradition of Anderson, we may also wish to take a closer look at our compatriots complicit in this continuing crime. Because the gas leak was just part of the disaster. The way the case was handled, the victims denied proper compensation and Anderson whisked away to freedom, the way successive governments failed to deliver justice just shows how hollow our principles of justice and democracy are.
Sure, the principal accused are the Union Carbide and its Indian subsidiary. The UCIL had been dumping thousands of tonnes of toxic waste around its Bhopal factory from 1969. Complaints about water contamination were ignored. Then came the catastrophic gas leak in 1984, because safety measures were inadequate — Union Carbide didn’t want to waste much money to protect Indian lives. Nor did it want to pay adequate compensation later.
Then there is Dow Chemical, which acquired UCC and ignores Carbide’s liabilities in India. It is on record saying that “$500 (compensation paid by Carbide) is plenty good for an Indian”. Dow has reportedly spent $2.2 billion for asbestos liabilities that it inherited from UCC. Why not liabilities in Bhopal then?
Then there is the Indian government. The Congress government first took away the victims’ rights to fight for themselves and grabbed the case, shoving aside national and international organisations and law firms keen to represent the Bhopal victims. Then it smugly settled for $470 million instead of the $3.3 billion initially claimed as compensation. Then it failed to disburse it for decades, finally paying a flat Rs 25,000 to the affected and Rs 1 lakh for the dead, not accounting for medical expenses.
Besides, it stashed away the huge interest accrued and tried to divert it. And it has still not cleaned up the toxic waste, which is slowly killing its own people and poisoning future generations. Babies are born maimed and need care that their parents, themselves poisoned, ailing and struggling with debts to meet health expenses, cannot provide. Then the state let Dow Chemicals go free and even wooed it back to India, hoping for business investments.
Meanwhile, the locals continue to drink the poisoned water and live off the poisoned land in Bhopal. The decision-makers, the ministers and bureaucrats, don’t live there, they don’t have to drink that water or bathe in it, rear their children on it. Yes, we know, they say officiously. We are working on it. Run along now. Union Carbide unleashed an “Industrial Hiroshima”, but our government continues the silent genocide.
And apparently the state government plans to build a Rs 116 crore memorial at the factory site for the victims, like the Hiroshima Memorial. Why pay the victims or give them proper healthcare or clean up the toxic waste?
But then, public outrage must be addressed. Well-practised in disasters, our sarkar — irrespective of the party in power — is a veteran in handling that. It sets up committees and commissions. The Liberhan Commission, the Srikrishna Commission, the Nanavati Commission — generally, panels that examine what the public is outraged about and produces reports that lie locked up or create more public outrage. So the outrage over the Bhopal verdict is being handled by setting up a group of ministers (GoM).
Wait, isn’t there already a GoM examining Bhopal? Never mind. Let’s regroup. So the GoM has been reconstituted with P. Chidambaram at the helm instead of Arjun Singh. That’s better. Mr Singh was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh at the time of the disaster, and had reportedly put the state machinery at Anderson’s disposal to help him flee, arranging for instant bail and airlifting him to Delhi. It was strongly believed that he acted on orders from the Centre.
But how dependable are the new members of this GoM? Chidambaram was at the forefront of wooing Dow Chemical to India, waiving any liability it may have for Carbide’s sins. And Kamal Nath too, another member. There is Jairam Ramesh too, who had cheerfully declared, ‘‘I held the toxic waste (in Bhopal) in my hand. I am still alive and not coughing. It’s 25 years after the gas tragedy. Let us move ahead”. And in this matter the Congress-led government must not go by the Congress spokesperson’s advice either — Abhishek Manu Singhvi is Dow’s counsel in the matter of Carbide’s liability, and has a clear conflict of interest.
Finally, there are our courts. In 1989, the Supreme Court settled the compensation amount at $470 million instead of $3.3 billion under then Chief Justice of India (CJI) R.S. Pathak. Then in 1996, CJI A.H. Ahmadi ruled in favour of Carbide and converted the CBI’s charge of Section 304 (II), which could sentence you to 10 years in jail, to 304 (A) which attracts a maximum punishment of just two years. That is what the accused got this week. The fact that since retirement Justice Ahmadi heads a trust set up by Carbide only makes it worse.
If we are looking at culpability, we need not look overseas at “absconding” old Anderson. We have a system of governance and justice right here which has failed us at various levels, over 25 years. And will do so again, unless we seek accountability. While we wait for foreign investment and international nuclear deals, let’s clean up our home.

Antara Dev Sen is editor of The Little Magazine.
She can be contacted at: sen@littlemag.com [2]