Bhopal, December 03: ( Parvez BAri) Come December 3 and the survivors of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the world’s worst industrial disaster, will once again assemble here to remember their dead, vent their spleen to tell the world their continuing agony, pains and sufferings for the last 26 years.
The day will be marked by protest rallies, street plays, burning of effigies of Warren Anderson, the then CEO of Union Carbide, Dow Chemical, US President Barack Hussain Obama, Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata, Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Federal Home Minister P. Chidambaram.
In fact the observation of the gas tragedy started on the eve of the gas tragedy on Thursday evening when after sunset about 500 survivors along with NGOs working for them took out “Mashal Juloos” (torch-light rally) from Bhopal Talkies to the abandoned Union Carbide plant.
It may be recalled here that in the intervening night of Dec 2-3, 1984, 40 tons of poisonous Methyl Isocyanate, (MIC), gas spewed out from the killer Union Carbide pesticide plant, now defunct, killing at least 3,000 people instantly. It is estimated that 25,000 have lost their lives since then.
It also affected 100,000 people maiming them for life that night and estimates are more than 500,000 still continue to suffer in myriad ways, some psychologically scarred, some emotionally tormented.
The highlight of the observance of the 26th anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy will be the torching of the effigies of US President Barack Obama, and Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata, though they had nothing to do with the incident, by the survivors of the disaster.
Explaining the reasons of wrath of the survivors against Obama, Satinath Sarangi of an NGO Bhopal Group for Information and Action said: “The US Government had taken stern action against British Petroleum in the oil spill case in which only 11 people were killed but they never acknowledged the worst industrial disaster caused by an American company. Warren Anderson, the then CEO of Union Carbide, who lives in America but during Obama’s tour to India, the US President did not utter a single word on the Bhopal gas tragedy, which happens to be the worst industrial disaster”, he said.
Sarangi revealed that prior to and during Obama’s November 6-9 India tour, the survivors had left no stone unturned to get their voices heard but the historic tour ended without a mention about the disaster.
Sarangi also explained why Tata is in the list. “He is the co-chairperson of USIBC (United States-India Business Council) which had organized Obama’s tour to India. But prior to the arrival of Obama to India, we had mailed and sent him several letters to arrange a 10-minute meeting with him but Tata did not act on it and remained indifferent like others,” he said.
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster, leaders of five organizations fighting for the rights of the people exposed to Union Carbide’s poisons condemned the Government of India for its neglect of the poisoned people and continued support to the American corporations.
The five organizations are Children Against Dow-Carbide, Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha and Bhopal Group for Information and Action.
The organizations said that the decision of the Federal government to deny additional compensation to more than 90 per cent of the people officially acknowledged to have been exposed to Union Carbide’s toxic gases is a grave injustice to the survivors who have received a paltry sum of Rs. 25,000 for life-long injuries. They also condemned the absence of any decision on registration of exposure related death claims after 1997, when such registration was arbitrarily stopped.
The organizations said that the Federal government has gone back on its word regarding the setting up of the Empowered Commission on Bhopal. They said that both in the meeting of the Committee of Secretaries chaired by the Prime Minister of India on June 3, 2008 and that of the Group of Ministers on Bhopal on June 22, 2008 it was decided to set up such a Commission with necessary funds and authority for long term medical care and rehabilitation of the survivors and their children. However, in its June 2010 meeting the Group of Ministers on Bhopal chose to ignore this decision.
The organizations condemned the Federal government’s deliberate neglect of extraditing the authorized representatives of Union Carbide Corporation, USA and Union Carbide Eastern, Hong Kong that is now reincarnated as Union Carbide Asia Pacific Inc. and Union Carbide Asia Ltd.. The organizations said that the government has not taken the tiniest step against these corporations who are absconding the ongoing criminal case for last 18 years. They pointed out that despite the promises made by the Group of Ministers, a fresh request for extradition of prime accused Warren Anderson remains to be sent to the US government.
Commenting on the delay in filing the curative petition for enhancement of compensation, the organizations said that unless the Federal government presents a strategy for enforcing judicial decisions on Union Carbide, the curative petition in the Supreme Court will only serve to fool the survivors and deny them justice.
Citing the Federal government’s failure to make Dow Chemical, current owner of the Union Carbide, to abide by the jurisdiction of Indian courts the organizations said that there is clearly a lack of political will. Both Union Carbide and Dow Chemical continue to violate Indian laws and scoff at Indian courts and the government appears to be helpless. The organizations said that if the central government were really serious about extracting compensation from the American corporations it would have joined the ongoing litigation on environmental damage in the US Federal court. The Federal government’s recent decision not to join this litigation, initiated by a group of people exposed to contaminated ground water makes it clear that it is only paying lip service to the “polluter pays principle” they said.
Meanwhile, according to Abdul Jabbar, a survivor himself who runs the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udhyog Sangathan, around 20,000 survivors would gather at Yadgare Shahjahani Park and later send a memorandum to the Chief Justice of India on the injustice being done to the gas victims
The Zahreeli Gas Kand Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal has charged that the Federal government had failed to abide by Supreme Court directives, issued in connection with the compensation for victims of the Union Carbide gas tragedy. The Morcha has demanded that the compensation amount be hiked in proportion to the 5,21,000 registered victims.
Morcha convener Alok Pratap Singh said the apex court had issued certain directives for compensation and controlling the hazardous industries, while hearing the main compensation case of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims in 1989, but the Centre has failed to follow these directives. (pervezbari@eth.net)