Obama, BP and the Indian Bhopal shame

As the Obama regime comes down with a heavy hand on BP over the Gulf of Mexico ecological disaster, one cannot but remember the shoddy state of affairs at of India’s own fiasco – the world’s largest ever industrial disaster – the Bhopal gas tragedy.

It is to the Obama administration’s credit that not only has BP been forced to give a massive $ 20 billion as a no-strings-attached donation for its lack of alertness in this fiasco, but crimila proceedings have been started as well. It shows extraordinary commitment on the part of the administration, and deserves credit.

On the other hand, it was sad to see the peanuts offered by way of compensation and by way of ‘judgement’ to our own people in the Bhopal Gas tragedy, by far the largest and cruelest ever industrial tragedy in the world.

Look at the two stories: President Obama said he had to take this strong step to correct

“what individuals couldn’t do and corporations wouldn’t do.” It is a bold statement, by any standard. And what does the Congress government in New Delhi say about the then Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson’s escape route out of this country? It says it was due to a "systemic failure".

This is the reaction of a government to a disaster that exposed over 5,00,000 to the poison gas, resulting in 15,000-25,000 (on various versions, because even this figure has not been maintained in accordance with law) deaths. the tragedy persists even today, with deformed births still happening in Bhopal. The government, of course, does not care for a few ignorant and wayside lives.

Let us take stock of the disaster today: On the night of December 3, 1984, the huge pesticide plant at Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), Bhopal, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, there was a major leak methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other toxins which induced such asphyxiation in the city’s marginal residents that many died even before they could be removed to hospitals. Children and aged suffered the most. The inhalation of the toxic gas has resulted in continuous deaths of up to 25,000 people so far. Many are permanently disabled, and children are still being born deformed, and with extreme psychological disorders.

It isn’t the end: 25-plus years after the gas leak, 390 tons of toxic chemicals abandoned at the UCIL plant continue to leak and pollute the groundwater in the region (agency reports) and affect thousands of Bhopal residents who depend on it, this is disaster of titanic proportions.

At that time, UCIL was the Indian subsidiary of the US company Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), which then became a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company.

News reports have confirmed that the reason for the disaster was poor maintenance after the plant shut down production in the early 1980s and the failure of several safety systems (due to poor maintenance and regulations). The shocker was that safety systems were switched off to save money—including the MIC tank refrigeration system which alone would have prevented the disaster.

Who were to blame? Obviously the two owners, Union Carbide Corporation and the Government of India, and to some extent, the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

Arjun Singh was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh at that time. It is being said that though CEO Warren Anderson was arrested, he was released by the Chief Minister, presumably at a phone call from New Delhi. It is not sure who made that call, but the then foreign secretary has told a news channel that he had passed on the responsibility to the home ministry, because they were the competent authorities.

As a result Warren Anderson escaped all summons from Indian courts and lives outside tgeh purview of Indian jurisdiction.

What did the court do? It has handed out TWO YEAR sentences to a few. TWO YEARS for a death toll of around 25,000 plus many paralytic generations! And among those punished is Keshub Mahindra, non-executive chief of the company then. By what stretch of imagination is a non-executive chief responsible for ground-level mismanagement? And how has the government agencies been left out?

I  only hope that the Obama dispensation’s tough arm-twisting of BP (BP also did indulge in poor maintenance and cutting corners for profit’s sake), adds a new dimension to the Indian shame.