Tattva

Sunil, one of the many victims of the Bhopal tragedy, sits back and reminesces.

Dec. 2, 1984 is coming to a close, routine checks are being done at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in the city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.  The personnel are hardly qualified to carry out the checks, products of cost-cutting moves by the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) based in the United States.  The plant uses the gas methyl-isocyanate (MIC) as part of the production process, this gas is highly toxic and reacts strongly to liquid water.  The MIC is supposed to be stored in drums, but it is instead stored in large tanks.  The tanks have alarms that warn of any leaking or other failures, these alarms had not worked since 1980.

There are several pipe leaks on the facility, something which is ignored by the higher up when it’s reported.  Several key safeguards are offline.  At about 10:00 PM, water enters one of these tanks.  The reaction is immediate, the poisonous chemicals begin to escape from the tanks and into the surrounding air.  The scrubbers, that were supposed to remove some of these harmful chemicals, have not been functioning for several months.

The charred remains of some of the MIC tanks at the Bhopal facility.

Inside 30 mins, residents outside the facility start to cough, suffocate, and vomit.  Laccho Bai, Sunil Kumar,and their families are among the lucky few to escape before the effects begin to worsen.  Laccho Bai, is well into her fifth pregnancy and cannot run very fast.  Sunil is at a tender 13 years old, just beginning his adolescent years, he has seven siblings in addition to his parents to worry about.  These men, women, and children run away from the UCC facility as their eyes burn and their lungs in their efforts to expel the poison.

The police arrive over three hours later and the area is finally evacuated, UCIL denies any issues at the facility.  2:00 AM, bewildered hospital staff start administering to the sick; some are already blind, others still are vomiting and experiencing failure of the lungs.  Throughout the next few hours thousands will die.  Over 170,00 are treated through whatever procedures that the overwhelmed doctors and nurses can administer.  At 7:00 in the morning, police announce that everything is back to normal.  The pregnant Laccho Bai and her husband return to their where their home was, Sunil returns to look for his family.  He expects to find everyone, but he only finds his infant brother and nine year old sister.

An infantile victim of the explosion is buried.

What follows in the next 25 years is a fiasco, to say the least.  Over 520,00 people are hospitalized.  Throughout the next few days thousands of dead are buried, some are thrown into the nearby river, some are pregnant women.  Prices for goods experiences a temporary spike due to suppliers’ fears of contamination.  The Indian government passes a law that lets it represent all victims in any court cases.  Widows are given a meager pension of Rs. 200 (about $ 36.96 in today’s currency).  Several rehab programs are initiated to introduce victims back into the workforce, nearly all fail miserably.  A hospital is opened as part of compensation in 1998.  In 1999, Sunil is flown to the US as a witness for the case that the Indian government filed against UCC.  Sunil had an incredible memory, he could read a newspaper and remember the contents years later.  His testimony is not even asked for, UCC and the Indian government representatives settle a deal behind closed doors.

As far as compensation goes, the victims are sorely lacking.  UCC claims to have done everything that it could, something that BP is claiming to also be doing.  Forget about the emotional and psychological issues, UCC (or DOW, the new owner) hasn’t even managed to ease the physical pains of the victims. The CEO of UCC during the incident, Warren Anderson, still is yet to be convicted in a court of law for his crimes.  The UCIL is managed by Indians, so the cases against UCC are all moved to India.  Anderson’s status as an American citizen overrode his position as CEO of UCC, thus he simply ignores any lawsuits filed against him in Indian courts.  The multiple summons by said Indian courts are conveniently ignored by Anderson.

Laccho bai stares into space. She looks 80 years old, but is only half that.

Who are the individuals responsible for all this?  Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister of India during that time, having taken up the reins of his deceased mother (Indira Gandhi, also a detestable character).  The one time Anderson was in the country (right after the tragedy), he was given free passage out by Rajiv Gandhi.  So the evidence points towards the Indian National Congress (INC).  The fact that Dr. Max Daunderer came to investigate the presence of cyanide in Bhopal, and was subsequently kicked out of India, is further proof that the INC was involved.

The question must be asked, if Anderson was let go, then should the courts have charged Rajiv Gandhi?  By letting Anderson go, and by preventing Dr. Daunderer from his investigations, Rajiv Gandhi becomes an accomplice to Anderson.  Thus, he was aiding and abetting a criminal.  But not even that was done, the only blame that was ever put on was towards Arjun Singh (Chief Minister of India during the time).  That too was only because no one else was eligible to be a scapegoat for the criticism the INC government recieved a month ago.  So we can conclude from these proceedings that the Congress is not a political party that can put the greed of political ties and economics above the people of India.  Add this to the anti-Hindu stance that the INC so often takes, and it’s quite evident what a threat the party poses to India.  Had another party been in power long enough, many changes would have come.  The cowardly relationship that India maintains with the US would have been tested, and a forceful extradition of Anderson would have taken place.  Once he is convicted, the others who were responsible could similarly be charged and convicted (with proper charges and sentences, not just two years).

President Obama too has shown a certain double standard when it comes to dealing with this issue.  Whereas he has come down hard on BP for it’s mistakes in the Gulf of Mexico, he has done nothing about the unfair verdict that came out only a week previous to his statement.  If fish and birds deserve enough attention to warrant a statement on international media channels, then the thousands of lives lost definitely warrant some attention, the half million who were directly affected warrant attention, and the 1+ million court cases on the issue definitely warrant attention.

Measures that would have been taken in the US were not taken in Bhopal, eg. the sole manual backup vs. the four stage backup systems in the US.  The list of money-saving shortcuts taken by the international corporation goes on and on, but the biggest one was the use of MIC.  There were other (less dangerous) alternatives, but the UCC was using the cheapest chemical in order keep costs low.  The short of it is that the UCC would not have taken the same decisions in the US, that it took in India.  But they couldn’t care less about a ‘backwards’ country, their decisions were cold and calculated moves to save money.  They didn’t think of the lives that might be lost if they wanted to cut corners in a facility that was using chemicals like MIC.

There are several non-governmental organizations (NGO) who are working to ease the pains of the victims, though some just serve to profit from the tragedy.  One NGO that has made a definite difference in the lives of the victims is the Sambhavna Clinic.  It is run by a group of professionals who have committed to helping the Bhopalis.  The structure of the clinic itself is conducive to peaceful thoughts, and it has an herb garden which is used as a source for it’s ayurvedic medicines (which have been found to be most helpful in the treatment).

Sunil hung himself in 2006, he had showered and shaved.  He was wearing a t-shirt bearing the words “No More Bhopals.”  Sunil had worked tirelessly since Dec. 1984, he had gone on world tours and gave time to the Sambhavna clinic.  He had no work for a long time, but still volunteered there and accepted no pay.  Laccho is now blind, senile, and aged beyond her years.  She had another daughter, both are now married.  Her husband provides for her as he can, but there’s only so much an poor and aging man can do.

Please visit the Sambhavna Trust website for more on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, to read more stories like Laccho and Sunil’s, and to learn how you can help.

Sanjay Lohar is ………..

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 12:06 am and is filed under Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.