AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!

And finally the Bhopal gas tragedy case came to a verdict. After some 28 years of trial and after some 18 judges presiding over it, one after the other. Mind you, this is only a lower court. All the accused are big and powerful enough to appeal against it and probably capable of influencing the judgement at the higher courts or at least prolong the case in the higher courts for another quarter century. By then, all the accused would be dead and gone! What a speed at which justice get delivered in our country! Looking at it, It was very evident, as way back in 1994, the Supreme court was involved in diluting the case by registering it under reduced charges of Section 304 A of IPC instead of Section 304.

Now coming to the sentence. For killings thousands of innocent people overnight and for deforming another ten of thousands later, the accused had been sentenced for TWO years. Glory be for Indian justice!

Touted as the biggest industrial disaster of the last century, that had happened due to the absolute callousness of the management of the company; Union Carbide Ltd, that made many families lose its breadwinners and the near and dear in Bhopal, this sentence underwrites the power of money and muscle in Indian Polity. It is found on investigation that the tragedy was waiting to happen for year as the safety standards of storing the killer Methyl Iso Cynite gas (MIC) was absolutely below par.

The Worldwide Chairman of Union Carbide, Warren Anderson went out scot-free from India when he visited the country soon after the tragedy. His name was not in the accused list and it never figured anywhere in the verdict. The Indian Chairman of the company Keshub Chandra Mahindra and Vice Chairman Gokhale got the lightest sentence possible of two years and so was the case of another six senior managers of the company. Thus, the verdict of the tragedy finally whimpered off. And the MNC practically came out unscathed by paying paltry compensation to the victims (another matter, if it ever reached them?) for having caused the damage, much to the chagrin of the victims concerned.

Public memory is normally very short. However in this case it wasn’t that short. So many agitations, representations, complaints and sit-ins had happened in this case across Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and the rest of the country. But what is the result? Money and Muscle power won, eventually.

Some left and other political parties raised hue and cry after the judgement, but even that was half hearted. Looking at it, one can understand as to how deep money would have gone into to silence the political parties, whether left, right or centre.

Whether they empathise with the victims or not, the verdict had now become just another sensational story for the media, particularly the electronic one. We now see statements from former bureaucrats, officials and ministerial authorities on how Warren Anderson got scot-free and on how Ministry of External Affairs decided not to seek his extradition from United States etc. There will be some more breaking news, debates and accusations before everything get forgotten, soon.

And proudly we say, ‘equal justice for all’ which is guaranteed by our constitution. How many politicians and industrialist had gone behind bars so far in India for the heinous crimes that had committed?

You don’t even need to count your finger tip!

None, practically……………