It has been more than three decades but the plights of gas victims continue because of apathy of two mainstream parties–BJP and Congress. If the Congress helped Anderson escape, the BJP allowed the killers of Bhopal walk away from their liability thus allowing Dow to do business as usual in this country. A glaring example of it could be found at the official website of Dow Chemical where opinion of two senior lawyers– Arun Jaitely and Abhishek Manu Singhvi– has been displayed as a clean chit from the Indian government.
Both the lawyers opined that ‘The Dow Chemical Company (TDCC) cannot be found liable under the laws of India’. Ironically, these two lawyers are top leaders of two national parties BJP and Congress. Both have appeared for Dow Chemical and have argued in favour of Dow that paved the way for this company to continue its business and flourish in India. Moreover, a civil curative petition filed in the Supreme Court in 2010 against Dow Chemical and Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) remains unattended till date.
The government’s curative petition was filed to enhance the 1989 settlement agreement negotiated by the Indian government with the UCC and Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) to settle all claims arising from Bhopal gas tragedy. Dow Chemical in its website explains to its stakeholders that ‘a curative petition is seldom used procedural device in India’s legal system designed for rare and narrowly defined situations to correct judgments entered as a result of procedural judicial error’.
It further concludes by saying that, ‘The curative petition- now dormant- has never been subject to a hearing.’ “Political parties be it the BJP or the Congress have been playing games with the gas victims. They are completely apathetic towards the plight of victims and have always underplayed their plight and pains,” said Rachna Dhingra, convener of Bhopal Group for Information and Action.
Organizations working for gas victims accused Gas Relief Minister Vishwas Sarang of misusing funds meant for economic and social rehabilitation of survivors. “Rs 104 crore were allocated in 2010 to provide jobs to 1 lakh Bhopal gas survivors and their children. After failing to provide employment to even one survivor in last 8 years, the minister is now spending more than Rs 60 cr of the money meant for employment generation on public works that are routinely funded by taxpayers money,” said Rasheeda Bi, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh.
Rachna of Bhopal Group for Information and Action expressed concern over the complicity of the Centre in misutilisation and misappropriation of funds meant for Bhopal survivors. “In 2014, we sent evidence of misappropriation of Rs 18 crore meant for economic rehabilitation of survivors to the CBI and to the Ministry of Chemicals that had provided the funds. No action has been taken against the known culprits till date.
Documents show that in March this year the Ministry of Chemicals approved diverting of funds meant for survivors after objecting to it for three years. The residual chemical dumped at the factory site still awaits clearance from the site. It is believed to be the main reason that has been contaminating the ground water in areas around inhabited with lakhs of population, added Dhingra.
