Bhopal Gas Farce!

1984 was a particularly unfortunate year in the history of our nation... Even in the best of years, India battles at least 2-3 insurgencies, 4-5 droughts and 6-7 floods... but in 1984, it witnessed the climax of sikh separatism, culminating in the daring attack on the Golden Temple, this was followed by the murder of Mrs. Gandhi by her own bodyguards who she had refused to let go of since she wanted to maintain her secular credentials, the bloody and shameful anti-sikh riots followed soon and much of Delhi and the nation was consumed by hatred... And towards the end of the year, just when it seemed the nation was limping back to a sense of pseudo-normalcy, tragedy struck again in the form of Bhopal Gas Disaster...

Apologies for the verbose introduction to the article, but it is important to realize the context in which the world's worst industrial accident occurred.... I sincerely believe that it was never the fault of the Americans which led to the disaster... The Americans might have been a 'little' careless, but that is completely justified, isn't it? After all, they were dealing with a couple of thousand Indian lives...Indians, used to being brought up in poverty are used to fighting hard for an inconsequential existence... Clearly their lives aren't that important... Like a spokesperson for Dow chemicals said as late as in 2002, An Indian life is surely not more precious than $500!! 

Anyways, enough of America-bashing... I genuinely believe that the Americans didn't kill the 20000 who died in Bhopal, It was the Indian government that dug their graves and spat upon their lifeless bodies... The Indian government showed pragmatism in the most unlikely of places... Imagine you are the government and the choice you have to make is as follows- 20000 people from a semi-urban area whose existence is unknown to most countrymen and Rs. 2 Cr per annum from foreign investments that can potentially pull the country out of poverty...

Of Course you'd choose the latter... Who cares about 20000 miserable wretches? Nobody... That is why Mr. Arjun Singh offered a helicopter to Mr. Anderson to help him flee his arrest... That is why, even as people in the affected areas slept, Mr. Arjun Singh fled Bhopal... That is why, committees were set up and dissolved... And that is precisely why it has taken 26 years of waiting for a sentence of 2 years!

The Bhopal gas Disaster was never meant to be a tragedy, it was meant to be a farce played out by those in power... And some people genuinely believed they would get justice! Wake up already if you've deluded yourself so far... Your immaterial and insignificant existence is of use to none... 

Indeed, lucky were the ones who perished that fateful night... At least they didn't live to see mockery being made out of their misery....

Jai Hind!