Its
again the same fateful night. The horror and uneasiness of that night still
brings the chill down my spine. Even if I was just three years old and it was
difficult for me to remember and speak on what was happening, still what my
memories tell me, my mom and dad were in fear, and I was in arms of mother, and
brother was holding the hands of dad. I remember running on the pavements of Bhopal to a safe place,called
IndraPuri, near Saket Nager area where I lived, when the sudden news of gas
leakage bombed the place at 2-3 December 1984 frightful night. Bhopal is a small place, so, such kind of
news spread like fire. People had woken up late at night with fear and with
apprehensions and beliefs, pretending that everything will be fine by the
morning. Even if I was a kid to understand things, I still can think and
remember the fearful faces, which still sometimes haunts me when I close my
eyes.
Anyways,
time went by. When I was ten and fully capable to understand , I came to know
Bhopal Gas Tragedy was one of the biggest tragedy of the civilization. One of
the tragedies which is being compared with Chernobyl disaster , where the human
negligence and human failure became the reason of death of innocent lives. Over
5,00,000 people were supposed to get infected with Methyl Iso-Cyanate(MIC) a
dangerous toxic gas, which can kill people instantaneously. According to a
estimate, around 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and
approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries were recorded.
The
UCIL which was held primarily responsible for the disaster had Warren Anderson,
as their head. The night warren Anderson
was soon taken in custody. RD Pradhan who was the Home Secretary at that point
of time was told to act upon by PV Narsimha Rao , the Home Minister , to
release Anderson(as
per Arjun Singh’s statement). Even if there is no clear proof of what actually
happened, fingers were raised to Rajiv Gandhi and his team being succumbed to
international pressure to release Anderson.
Its said that during the gas disaster, Arjun Singh took a flight to Allahabad and went to a
chapel near his childhood school to get moral courage. The critics say he had actually ran away to avoid face – off with the
victims and even feared his life.There was a slogan which became famous
“Gas nikli adhi raat,
Arjun bhaga ratoon raat”.
After
27 years, Anderson now is 92, still is living a luxurious life, sitting on the
dead bodies of innocent victims.T he commission under Justice NK Singh didn’t
find anything and was wounded faster. In 1991, the local Bhopal
authorities declared Anderson
a manslaughter, which carries a penalty of 10 years prison. He was declared
fugitive by Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal
on 1 February 1992. The US
supreme Court refused to hear appeal from the lower federal courts and the case
was closed.
With
such erudite intellectual Foreign Policy think Thanks who have attained
demi-God status working in government offices, the babus of the Government were
not able to draft a good foreign policy to get Anderson Back.
Gosh! With a pain in my
heart I should say, May be after 27 years, the homicide channelised by State
Government and corrupt Babus in association with private MNC’s doesnot matter
to us, but people at Bhopal continue to live under the fear of 2-3 December and the death
they witnessed that night, which they are carrying forward to next generation.
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