Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 10 (IANS) Upping the ante on the Bhopal verdict, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday demanded that the Congress seek forgiveness for helping Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson flee India and the government show “political will” to get him extradited from the US.
BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said the “responsibility for the disappointing court verdict in the Bhopal gas disaster case rests with the then central government of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and the then Madhya Pradesh government headed by chief minister Arjun Singh.”

“It is becoming clear that the two Congress governments have helped the accused rather than bring justice to the victims… The BJP demands that the Congress should seek forgiveness from the country for Anderson’s release and the government should show political will for his extradition from the United States to put him to trial,” he said.

“We want to know why the Congress helped him to escape,” he said.

Javadekar alleged that the court verdict had “exposed the Congress and its anti-people policies”.

Demanding a probe into Anderson’s release, he said that such a big step could not have been taken without the consent of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Anderson, an accused in the 1984 chemical disaster that killed an estimated 25,000 people, is in the US and a proclaimed offender in India.

The BJP spokesman said Anderson’s release had weakened the case of the gas victims.

“The then deputy commissioner of Bhopal, Moti Singh has made it clear that Anderson was released on a surety of Rs.25,000 within two hours of his arrest on the orders of the then chief secretary Brahamswarup. Not only this, he (Anderson) was sent to Delhi immediately in a government plane,” Javadekar said.

The BJP leader said that the government plane cannot be made available without permission of the chief minister. He added that the rules specify that a senior official or a minister has to accompany the person for whom the plane has been given.

“The BJP demands that the name of person who accompanied Anderson should be disclosed.”

The party also alleged that union minister Kamal Nath had pleaded for investment by Dow Chemicals, the new entity of Union Carbide, in the country. “Why and how did he plead for the new company?” Javadekar said.

Alleging that the Congress had helped Union Carbide, Javadekar said the party should explain why an agreement was reached outside court for a compensation amount of $300 million when the compensation sought was to the tune of $2 billion.

He said that the US company had refused to pay more compensation to the victims after the court award.

Javadekar claimed that rather than toughening the nuclear liability bill in the light of lessons from the Bhopal tragedy, the government was softening the bill.

A Bhopal trial court Monday held seven Union Carbide officials guilty of criminal negligence in the 1984 gas leak and sentenced them to two years’ imprisonment. They were immediately granted bail.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs.100,000 on the seven convicted, including Keshub Mahindra, who then headed Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL).

The gas leak in the pesticide plant on the intervening night of Dec 2-3, 1984, is widely regarded as one the deadliest industrial disasters of the world. Thousands still suffer from medical complications.