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his December marks the 30th anniversary of the Bhopal gas leak
disaster, infamously known as the
biggest chemical disaster in the world, in
which more than 40 tonnes of a mixture
of poisonous gases spewed out of the
pesticide plant of Union Carbide India
Limited (UCIL), the Indian subsidiary of
the US transnational Union Carbide
Corporation (UCC) in Bhopal on the
night of 2-3 December 1984. This year is
also significant in that Warren Anderson,
the chairman of UCC at the time of the
disaster, died on 29 September, with a
permanent epithet that of an absconder
and a fugitive from Indian justice. On
7 December, four days after the disaster,
when Warren Anderson had arrived in
Bhopal, he was arrested by the local
police (the charges were culpable homicide not amounting to murder, grievous
assault, and the killing and poisoning of
human beings and animals), put under
house arrest for a few hours in the
UCIL guest house atop the Shamla Hills,
Bhopal, granted bail by the local court
against a personal bond of Rs 25,000,
and transported the same day by a state
aircraft to New Delhi and then off to the
US, never to return to stand trial as per
his bond commitment.
The Face of Corporate Crime
C Sathyamala (csathyamala@gmail.com), an
epidemiologist, is a member of the Supreme
Court Advisory Committee on Medical
Research in Bhopal. She was the first convenor
of the Delhi-based Bhopal Gas Peedith
Sangharsh Sahyog Samiti, a coalition of over
30 organisations founded in 1989 in the
aftermath of the settlement. As a medical
expert, she was also an intervener in the
review petition challenging the settlement.
10
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Faced with this pious postcolonial discourse, the Indian government had but
only one option to accept Keenans decision. The rest, as they say, is history.
Settling of the Case
In February 1989, the Supreme Court of
India settled the case and the UCC and
UOI agreed to an amount of $470 million
in settlement of all claims past, present
and future and to quash all criminal
charges against UCC. This time the UCC
was represented by another Indian
constitutional luminary, Fali Nariman.
Justice R S Pathak who facilitated the
settlement was awarded with a posting
in the International Court of Justice in
The Hague.8 Till today, the reason(s) for
the scaling down of the compensation
amount from a demand of $3.3 billion to
$470 million has not been made public.
The outcry this settlement created,
nationally and internationally, forced
the Supreme Court to come out with a
clarificatory order in May 1989 which was
based on mythical figures of the number
of dead and injured since not even 10% of
the 6,00,000 claimants had been evaluated for personal injury and even those
who had been were evaluated on an
arbitrary and faulty process of injury assessment deigned to underestimate the
quantum and nature of injuries (Sathyamala et al 1989). The appropriation of
the citizens legal rights to litigate meant
the appropriation of medical information as well which had consequences for
both research on the health impact of the
toxic gases and treatment measures.9
Although in 1989, the Supreme Court
upheld the constitutional validity of the
Act in the hearings challenging the
states exclusive rights to defend the
victims, the Court conceded that victims
should have been given notice prior to
the settlement and that the quashing of
criminal proceedings was beyond the
purview of the Act. Buoyed by this ruling
and the change in the government, the
victim groups filed review petitions
against the settlement. The challenge to
the settlement rested on three major
grounds. First, the amount settled for
vol xlIX no 52
11
COMMENTARY
settlement was making it a condition without which the settlement would not stand.
Mr Nariman drew a distinction between motive and consideration, and the court adopted it, although what is motive [was] not explained. If the quashing of the criminal cases
was not to help negotiate the settlement and
get the company to agree to pay $470 million
which was $120 million more than it had
agreed to pay why was it in the order and
in the terms of settlement? (Ramanathan
2010; emphasis as in the original).
12
This does not include the new generations of victims (children born to the
gas exposed) or the manifestation of
newer injuries such as cancer whose
prevalence rate has risen in Bhopal
(ICMR undated).
UCC and UOI vs the Gas Victims
More often than not, while attending the
daily hearings on the review petitions
against the settlement in the Supreme
Court in 1990, it was not clear whether
the case being heard was UCC vs UoI or
UCC and UOI vs the gas victims. Subsequently, although the courts have granted several reliefs to the victims, even
simple actions such as the computerisation of patient records and the non-issuance of health booklets (patient retained health records) despite repeated
orders (Jayaprakash and Sathyamala
2014) are not complied with. This goes
to show that irrespective of whichever
government is in power, the nature of
the state has not changed.
Notes
1 Bhopal Gas Tragedy: How Warren Anderson
Got Away from Our Grasp, India Today, 1 November 2014, accessed on 18 December 2014,
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/bhopal-gastrag edy-warren-anderson-union-carbide-dowchemicals-rajiv-gandhi-congress-arjun-singh/1/
398605.html
Warren Andersons Extradition Plea Pending
with US: CBI, Rediff.com, 3 April 2013, accessed
on 18 December 2014, http://www.rediff.com/
news/report/ warren-andersons-extraditionplea -pending-with-us-says-cbi/20130402.htm
Bhopal Gas Tragedy: A Chronology of Events,
The Hindu (2010), accessed on 19 December
2014,
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/bh opal-gas-tragedy-a-chronology-ofevents/article448771.ece
2 Anderson and His Wife Lillian Own a Luxurious
Home in the Hamptons, accessed on 18 December 2014, http://news.rediff.com/slide-show/
2010/jun/07/slide-show-1-Warren-Andersonsnine-hundred-thousand-dollar-luxury-homein-new-york.htm
3 In 2010, Soli Sorabjee who was the attorney
general during the time of the review petitions
which argued against the quashing of the
criminal case gave the opinion that it would be
futile to seek for the extradition of Anderson.
See CNN-IBN Focus on Relief, Not Extradition:
Sorabjee, accessed on 18 December 2014,
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/focus-on-relief-nownot-extradition-sorabjee/123870-37-64.html
4 Anderson retired in 1986 at the age of 65 and
in Later Years He Gardened and Fished with
his Wifeand Baked Swedish Bread, following
an Old Family Recipe. See D Martin, Warren
Anderson, 92, Dies; Faced India Plant Disaster,
The New York Times, 30 October 2014, accessed
on 18 December 2014, http: //www.nytimes.
com/2014/10/31/business/vw-m-anderson92-dies-led-union-carbide-in-80s-.html?_r=0
december 27, 2014
5 Anderson was said to have increased the productivity and sales of UCC after he took over as
the Chairman and CEO in 1982 and acquired
several companies. At the time of the Bhopal
disaster, UCC had 700 plants in 38 countries
with over 1,00,000 employees. See The Telegraph,
3 November 2014, accessed on 18 December 2014,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/
11205397/ Warren-Anderson-obituary.html
6 The facsimile of the document states that
Anderson was released on orders from the
Central Government and also states that
while the disaster was unlikely to have a major
effect on the elections that were to follow in
two weeks time the new government was likely
to move cautiously in developing future foreign
investment and industrial policies and relations with multinationals specially US firms.
See S Haider, Rajiv Govt Freed Anderson: CIA
Papers, 11 June 2010, accessed on 18 December 2014, http://ibnlive.in.com/news/rajivgovt-freed-warren-anderson-cia-papers/
123873-37-64.html
7 It has been conjectured that Andersons release
was in exchange for the release of Adil Shahryar,
son of the Late Yunus Mohammad, as a swap
deal between Rajiv Gandhi and the US government (Krishna 2010b).
8 Justice R S Pathak had become the Chief Justice
of India in December 1986 and relinquished
office in June 1989 after delivering the judgment on the Bhopal settlement to take up the
post in The Hague.
9 For a detailed discussion on the consequences
of medical appropriation, see Sathyamala and
Jayaprakash (2012).
10 In fact, as interveners in the Supreme Court Case,
we were told by the then attorney general in
categorical terms not to raise the issue of the
categorisation of injuries in the Court. However,
we went ahead with our argument on the process
of injury evaluation. (Writ Petition No 11708 of
1985 filed on 1 August 1985 by Dr Nishith Vohra
and two gas victims. C Sathyamala became a
co-petitioner in 1989 and the case was argued
by Senior Counsel Indira Jaising).
References
Delhi Science Forum Report (1985): Bhopal Gas
Tragedy, Social Scientist, 13(1), pp 32-53.
Elkin, L (1986): Judge: Indian Courts Should Handle
Bhopal Lawsuits, accessed on 19 December 2014,
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1986/JudgeIndian-Courts-Should-Handle-Bhopal-Lawsuits/id-b41883cb0193d7ee39baae251c485 354
ICMR (undated): Health Effects of the Toxic Gas
Leak from the Union Carbide Methyl Isocyanate
Plant in Bhopal. Technical Report on Population
Based Long-term Clinical Studies (1985-94) (New
Delhi: Indian Council of Medical Research), accessed on 5 November 2012, http://www.icmr.
nic.in/final/tech_rep_clinical.pdf.
Jaising, I and C Sathyamala (1992): Legal Rights
and Wrongs: Internationalising Bhopal,
Dev Dialogue, 1-2, pp 103-15.
Jayaprakash, N D (2014): The Path to Sustainable
Development: Lessons from the Bhopal Disaster,
paper presented at the Right to Development
Anniversary Event organised by the Office of the
High Commissioner for Human Rights, United
Nations Organisation, Geneva, on 2 December
2014, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the
Bhopal disaster.
Jayaprakash, N D and C Sathyamala (2014): Victims
of Apathy: Bhopal Disasters Unenviable Legacy,
Medico Friend Circle Bulletin, 361-62, pp 1-7.
Krishna, G (2010a): The Emergency and Bhopal,
Outlook http://www. outlookindia.com/article/
The-Emergency-And-Bhopal/265858, accessed
on 18 December 2014.
vol xlIX no 52
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COMMENTARY
(2010b): Adil Shahryar, Anderson Swap
Deal?, accessed on 18 December 2014, http://
www.toxicswatch.org/2010/07/adil-shahryaranderson-swap-deal.html
(2014): Endless Quest for Indias Baghdad
Continues, Medico Friend Circle Bulletin, 361-62,
pp 21-22.
Mohanty, P (2010): Bhopals Hall of Shame: The
Power People Who Gassed the Victims,
accessed on 19 December 2014, http://www.
governancenow.com/news/regular-story/bhopals -hall-shame
Ramanathan, U (2010): Bhopal: An Unsettling
Settlement, The Hindu, accessed 19 December
2014, http://www. thehindu.com/opinion/oped/bhopal-an-unsettling-settlement/article
525466.ece
Sathyamala, C (1996): A Requiem for Bhopal, Medico
Friend Circle Bulletin, November-December,
No 236-37.
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