Bhopal Disaster Then! Judicial Disaster NOW!

Bhopal Gas Disaster Verdict: Virtual Clean Chit for the Worst Corporate Crime

More than 25 years after the infamous Bhopal Gas Disaster, a trial court in Bhopal has delivered a verdict that is nothing but a cruel mockery of justice. Not only does the verdict insult the victims of one of the world’s worst industrial disasters by letting off the mighty CEOs who were the chief perpetrators either scot free or with a ridiculously light sentence, it amounts to an assurance to MNCs they will enjoy total impunity in India even when their negligence and violations of regulations leads to loss of thousands of Indian lives and injury to several thousand more.

In December 1984, 40 tonnes of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) leaked out of the Union Carbide Corporation’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, exposing over 5,00,000 people to the toxic fumes. 25,000 people died as a result, and hundreds of thousands of persons suffered irreversible damages to their health. The poison in the soil and water continues to affect future generations.

After over 25 years, the trial Court gave its verdict allowing the Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson (declared an absconder) to go scot free, while convicting eight representatives of the Indian operatives Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) including former UCIL Chairman (and present CEO of Mahindra and Mahindra) Keshub Mahindra for a mere two years. All those convicted of course received bail on the same day for a surety of Rs 25000 each!

US Protection for Criminal Corporates

The injustice of the Bhopal verdict is not just a comment on judicial failure to deliver justice – it rings a warning bell that every Indian should heed. It warns us as to how Indian lives are endangered by the Indian establishment’s policy of pandering to the United States and its corporations (a policy of which the Civilian Nuclear Liability Bill is the latest example). The US establishment is fully aware of these implications: it has reacted to the Bhopal verdict by “hoping that the verdict will not affect” the growing ties between India and the US and the Nuclear Liability Bill in particular, and instead will provide “closure” for the victims of the tragedy.

For the Obama Administration to speak of the verdict offering “closure” to the Bhopal Gas victims is a callous act of adding salt to injury. The US has ruled out any discussion of extradition of Warren Anderson to face criminal charges in India, and is urging India to pass the Civilian Nuclear Liability Bill that seeks to absolve protect the US suppliers of nuclear reactors from liability to pay compensation in the case of a nuclear accident, and to cap the liability of operators at a mere $470 million – a sum that the Bhopal experience has proved to be grossly inadequate. Contrast this attitude of the US with the Obama Administration’s angry declarations to pursue criminal charges against British Petroleum for the oil spill off the Louisiana coast that claimed 11 lives recently. Protecting US corporations from civil and criminal liabilities for Indian lives lost, and pursuing criminal charges against corporations responsible for American lives lost – the shameful US double standards are all too apparent!

Shameful Complicity of Indian Establishment

Paving the way for the trial court’s verdict were a series of Supreme Court verdicts as well as the attitudes of Governments at the Centre and in Madhya Pradesh that sought to absolve the guilty corporation of responsibility. In 1989 the Supreme Court set its seal of approval on the agreement reached between Union Carbide and the Central and Madhya Pradesh Governments freeing Union Carbide from civil liabilities to pay compensation and damages. In 1996 the Supreme Court quashed charges against culpable homicide against the Bhopal accused: in spite of the evidence that Union Carbide was aware of the consequences of the leak of lethal gas, it allowed prosecution only on charges of “rash and negligent” acts that carries a maximum sentence of two years.

The Indian Government and India’s major ruling class parties the Congress and the BJP have their own shameful share in protecting killer corporations and mocking the victims of Bhopal. The BJP Government of MP and the Congress-led UPA Government represented by the Union Minister for Environment at the Centre marked the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster in December last year by uniting in a bid to declare the Union Carbide site and the soil and water of adjoining areas free of pollution. The Indian Government has done nothing to demand that Warren Anderson, CEO of Carbide, be extradited to India to face trial. Dow Chemicals, which has taken over Carbide, has refused to take responsibility for cleaning up the Union Carbide factory wastes, yet Indian ruling class parties and governments have done their best to roll out the red carpet for Dow. Among those who have pleaded and lobbied on Dow’s behalf between 2005 and 2007 are Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Home Minister (then Finance Minister) P. Chidambaram and Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, as well as Ratan Tata. Following the trial court verdict, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi has shed crocodile tears for the Bhopal victims by demanding that the laws on rash and negligent acts be made more stringent. This posturing is exposed by the fact that Singhvi himself is also the long-term legal counsel for Dow Chemicals!

The Bhopal disaster is a damning instance of how the Indian ruling class’ policy of pandering to the US and its corporations is injurious to the health and safety of India’s people. Not only must we protest against the shameful verdict and demand that Warren Anderson be extradited, Dow Chemicals be made to pay for clean up of the polluted sites and medical care of the victims, and blacklisting of Union Carbide and Dow; we must also strive to scrap the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill to ensure that the tragedy of Bhopal and its shameful consequences are never repeated on Indian soil!