By our guest writers “Deepak Tewari” and “Nitika Sawhney”
Media’s much intervention at several instances has been criticised but it has also proved its worth in various other cases. Jessica Lal’s murder and Rathor’s case received recognition via media and hence helped the victims in getting at least some justice!
I am not ashamed of quoting India as a country of latency when I see the baseless delay by courts in giving verdicts. Everything seems to be on the verge of improving in the country but law and order’s punctuality.
Though media has helped pending cases getting momentum but it seems that no matter how much hype an incident may get everything falls on deaf ears. The phrase ‘Justice prevails’ doesn’t even find seldom usage in the country known for peace and humanity. It is difficult to use this term even in Jessica Lal and Rathore’s case. A judgement coming after 18 years will although let victims take a sigh of relief but how do we call such judicial system effective when citizens have to struggle hard just to prove a known fact as a truth in the honourable court. Entire lives of victims and their families are either spent in court hearings or finding ways to save themselves from threats by the powerful accused.
The Bhopal Gas episode’s tragedy is no different. Rather it’s even worse. A couple would have brought up their children and get them married in this span. 26 years gone and still no justice!
The night of 3rd December 1984 that only brought darkness in the lives of capital of Madhya Pradesh- Bhopal’s residents still has ashes burning and hot. Monetary compensation in return to the lives of more than 20,000 dead people and several lakhs affected can certainly not wipe of the inhuman loss from our minds and hearts. Life is priceless and no power on earth can heal this distress. But had the judicial system acted faster (which should have been the ideal speed) giving no room to unreasonable delays, it could have at least left the victims satisfied.
A compensation of 600 crores distributed among 5.74 lakh people works out to be only Rs. 12,410 per victim. This stands in contrast to the compensation of Rs. 15 lakh received by families of dead in the Uphaar tragedy in Delhi. Now will this variance not incite hard feelings among the affected? They have all reasons to be unhappy with the judicial system and government of the country. The incident that witnessed exposure of highly toxic and deadly gases taking away lives of countless innocents has been underestimated great deal. More than 20,000 lives lost and over 5 lakh people suffering from severe bodily damages like blindness and choked breaths has been an occurrence that is genuinely awaiting the victory of righteousness.
The Bhopal Gas Tragedy not just caused major damage then. Its impact is live even today with many people possessing genetic problems due to the catastrophic incident caused by sheer negligence of the people managing Union Carbide India Limited’s gas plant in Bhopal. If similar hazards (revealed through a safety audit) prevalent in US plant of the parent company Union Carbide Corporation were fixed who will come to justify the carelessness performed at the Indian plant. No second thoughts come to mind when we come to know that above facts are true and the culprits deserve a no-discount punishment.
And now when all the eight convicts are sentenced to 2 years imprisonment under Section 304A (based on negligence) seven of them have been released on a bail of Rs. 25000 bond each and now role of Ex-Chief Minister Mr. Arjun Singh is also coming under suspection who permitted the main accused of the whole tragedy Mr. Warren Anderson to leave the country in consent with Mr. Rajiv Gandhi (Ex-Prime Minister) without any charges on him. The questions are:
1) Why did they not bother about the general public who were dying on the road and Bhopal City was witnessing dead bodies on its soil?
2) How and why did they permit Anderson to leave the country when Madhya Pradesh Police arrested him at Bhopal Airport on 7th June 1984?
Even after 26 years we witness no stubbornness in the official and judicial system that once again proves ‘Justice does not prevail, what prevails is just the power of wealth”.
Wake up India and let’s fight for our country…with “now or never” attitude!
Tags: Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Indian politics, Jessica Lal murder case, SPS Rather case
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Great article Arvind. Real eye opener.
wahh yr kya artical hai yr kamal ka hai yr..its speacless
wahh yr kya artical hai yr kamal ka hai yr..its speachless
Hello
I would like to take this article on a different note. I just wanted to know are we clear enough, Who was the main culprit for the disastrous incident? Was it Mr. Anderson? Or Mr. Keshub Mahindra? Or our rspected Mr. Arjun Singh? Else it may be some other whom we haven’t considered as teh culprit till yet? In my opinion, It should be the person who had given a green signal to run the fcatory even after auditing results regardin factory lacking the safety measures were out?
Let’s take a simple example, Suppose i own a truck & my truck driver was driving it drunked & he somehow managed to get it pass through a restricted police check post & very soon after that it colllided into a Fair killing a large number of people.
Whom will you find responsible for the brutal killing?
Is it the Truck driver ,or the truck owner, or The policeman who gave it the safe passage ( may be under the influence of his senior) or the seniormost policeman.
I think its need not to mention here that the prime culprit here should be the policeman only.
So the same case should be applied in BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY also.
Again, the compensation given to each victim here ( Rs. 12000 Rs)
is compared with that of UPhaar victims ( Rs . 15 lacs). But the thing is that the total compensation paid by the company crossed 600 crores here, which in the case of Uphaar victims was less than even 10 crores.
The thing is taht our Govt. should now learn from the above disastrous mistakes & should make the safety norms highly strict like in other Countries. So that noone should be able to overpass them at any cost.
Same case applies to our prestigious Nuclear deal, instead of asking for incerasing the liability of comapnies towards accident ( which is 500 criores right now) , We should focus on how can we make the accident impossible to happen as there is no cost of human live may it be 500 crores or even 5 lac crores..
I aplogise if anyone is affended here by my comments…
Hello Shubham,
Thanks for taking time to write such an elaborated reply. That shows by raising your voice against such shameful incidents in India you are contributing your bit. Congrats!
However, if you read correctly then it is about “Bhopal Gas Tragedy- A Big Shame on Indian Politicians”…of course we aren’t blaming Anderson here but the hell govt, its beaurocracy and above them all…highly currupted politicians, who can do anything for the money. They think thmselves as the Kings and the entire country and its people as mere animals and cattles. We must unite together and should kick their butts by not nominating and electing them in the parliament.
Hi Shubham,
Thanks for your feedback and views. I accept them all.
However as per my thinking it is quite justifiable to comapare the compensation of Bhopal Gas Tragedy and Uphaar Cinema case. Reason being that while deciding the compensation amount we should also take into consideration the number of commoners affected by the tragedy. Which in Uphaar case were drastically less than the lakhs affected in Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
Though I agree that financial help cannot heal the deep emotional wounds that people of Bhopal have been suffering but when it comes to justice we should really be delaring what they deserve.
Great article…nice work…
nyc article….:)
Hello Nitika
First of all kudos to you for writing a nice article on such a debateful topic these days. I think you got my point that money cannot make any effect in healing the wounds. What they deserve is much much more than what they have got.. But you know its not possible beacuse a huge mass is involved. The point is we should take a serious learning from here , so that these type of tragedies don’t happen in future.
very informative article
Thanks Suyash.
Thanks,
Jack
http://aurumwriters.com
Yeah sure you can post it on your blog/website provided you put a link back to our website.
Thanks,
Jack
http://aurumwriters.com