India’s wilted and withered justice system has finally crawled to deliver judgment on the Bhopal tragedy after 25 years.
It has shamed the common aphorism that justice delayed is justice denied even further.
Since the tragedy to the deliverance of the judgment, many victims have died, aged and suffered, while children born in the aftermath suffer from deformities and abnormalities.
Union Carbide and its Chief Executive Anderson Cooper escaped unscathed to the comfort and the security of the US.
The vociferous Indian media maintained the drumbeat of protest to ensure that the issue was not shelved.
An unheard of tragedy
The Bhopal based Union Carbide pesticide plant caused a major catastrophe on December 3, 1984, when 40 tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas was accidentally pumped into the air. This incident happened when water entered a holding tank triggering a violent chemical reaction.
Although the cause of the terrible tragedy remains in dispute, some say that corrosion and lack of maintenance were the prime reason. Within minutes of its release, thousands of people died in their sleep, and corpses piled up in clinics and hospitals.
The Union Carbide plant had no contingency plan for dealing with such disasters.
According to some reports, more than 25,000 people perished in subsequent years from a variety of causes, attributed mostly to the deadly gas leak.
In 1998, the leased site of the plant was returned to the Indian authorities but it remains a scarred location with hundreds of tons of rusting, contaminated debris and spilled chemicals. In 1989, the Indian government brokered a deal whereby the Union Carbide paid US$470 million in a “full and final” settlement that enabled the victims to receive a paltry sum of NZ$830 each and fated to live with the consequences.
According to estimates, 570,000 people were killed and injured by the Bhopal gas leak, including 5000 people who died instantly and several hundred thousand maimed for life.
Many of these children were born with severe mental and physical defects.
The incident was equated with the bombing of Hiroshima at the end of the World War II.
However, the gravity of the crime failed to exact acceptable punishment.
Strained Justice
On June 7 2010, a court in Bhopal convicted seven former Indian employees of the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide that built and operated the pesticide plant. They were found guilty of death by negligence and sentenced to two years in jail but were released on bail, pending appeal.
Critics, noting India’s strained and congested justice system, said that those convicted may not go through the appeal process in their lifetime!
Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action expressed her anger at the judgment. “It’s terrible! This is what comes after 25000 deaths. This is an open invitation to multinational corporations to come and pollute and then leave…”
In fact, the Bhopal court verdict sent ripples around the world. Tim Edwards of the British-based Bhopal Medical Appeal, which raised money to help the survivors said, “The judgment sets a very bad precedent; a disaster, equivalent to a bad traffic rap”.
Both survivors and activists claimed that the sentences were insufficient and condemned the earlier decision to reduce the charges from “culpable homicide.” They were dismayed by the Indian Government’s response that failed to hold senior US officials to account.
Meanwhile, former Union Carbide Chairman Warren Anderson lived in retirement in his luxury home in the Hamptons, outside New York and played daily round of golf. He had taken the ‘moral responsibility’ for the accident and had agreed to cooperate with the Indian judicial process but never showed much enthusiasm or concern for the victims.
No attempts were made to seek his extradition. Residents of Bhopal and environmental campaigners felt outraged, saying that the Indian Government placed commercial relations with the US above justice.
Sorry, not Americans
Surprisingly, a disaster that claimed 25,000 lives in Bhopal through the actions of a US multinational company did not stir the conscience of the Government in Washington DC but it grieves annually the loss of 3000 American lives over the 9/11 terrorists attacks in New York. It certainly appears that human values differ from country to country, as is evident that 25,000 Indian lives were as cruelly terminated as the 3000 lives in the US.
The difference is that 3000 American lives lost have an altar for the Americans to mourn annually, with the world expected to ritually join them while the loss of 25,000 Indian lives fade with time.
Observers say the Indian Government has submitted itself to the might of the US, accepting the adage that ‘Might is Right’, failing in its responsibility to vigorously seek redress for its unfortunate citizens.
Truth was submerged and the justice system shamed in this sordid affair, but the Bhopal tragedy will continue to prick the conscience of those who empathise with humanity.
Sadly, such people comprise the minority but they do make that distinct difference between those who treasure and uphold the values of humanity and those who do not.
In this sad saga, Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy to India is also a casualty, as truth, justice and rights of its people, for which he gained international fame, have been mortgaged by the Indian Government in favor of the expediency to maintain mutual ties with the US.
Universally, it was generally viewed that justice delayed was justice denied.
The Bhopal verdict was not only justice delayed but also justice denied to the victims.
Increasingly, it is a worldwide phenomenon that justice is often manipulated in favour of the rich and powerful, both discreetly and sometimes brazenly; and yet, those that hold the reins of power crow about justice, rights, freedom and equality while the poor, weak, and gullible are made to live in hope but wrapped in despair.
Rajendra Prasad (raj.prasad@xtra.co.nz ) belongs to the fast thinning school of righteous thinkers, who are outraged by apparent miscarriage of justice. His article, exclusive to Indian Newslink, may encourage you to respond. Please feel free to do so at editor@indiannewslink.co.nz
Photo: Children born after the tragedy are maimed or deformed; Picture by Amnesty International, Hong Kong
