First those who gained from the tragedy:
Justice RS Pathak who brokered the Bhopal agreement on St Valentines day in 1989.Only 3000 people were taken to be dead and 1,20,000 were accepted as injured in the agreement. A full and final compensation of 470 million $ was agreed upon and Justice Pathak later went to the International Court of Justice.
Only 3000 dead? What about the remaining 13,274 people whose relatives were subsequently awarded compensation by the courts. Where did they come from? Also 5,73,000 people have been compensated for the deformities that they sustained.
Mr Arjun Singh the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. Perhaps for all what he did has been sufficiently rewarded. He rose to be the number two in the Narsimha Rao cabinet and continues to contribute towards the Indian polity in ways that he knows best.
Mr Swaraj Puri the then Superintendent of Police of Bhopal who rose to be the Director General of the state police. He was removed from the post after court directed the Economic Offences Wing of the state government to look into a complaint against him. He had allegedly changed the name of his father to get his son admitted into an engineering college through the NRI Quota.
Social Workers who have become globe trotters and lecture people across the world on chemical disasters. They are so many of them that there is no point in naming them.
And now the sufferers with a bit of a backgrounder:
There was a sound on the door of the one roomed house of Shejadi Buhar in Old Bhopal around three in the morning of December 3,1984. Buhar then 26 and already a widow, woke her three minor daughters and mustered enough courage to open the door only to be greeted by a splash of methyl isocyanide. The deadly gas that leaked from the Union carbide factory at around 10.30 pm had reached Barkheri but Buhar thought someone had been burning red chillies in the mandi. She stayed in her room the whole night and went to the Hamidia Hospital only the next day where she found her father searching for her amongst a heap of dead bodies. Buhar survived.
I met Buhar in December 2000. It was after a lot of coaxing from Amit Sen Gupta, the edit page in charge of the newspaper that I worked for. I had to write for the Off Track column and was a bit apprehensive. I did write and after meeting Buhar it was with considerable ease. I made it to the edit page for the first time in my life so can also be counted amongst the gainers from the tragedy.
Buhar told me she along with almost 500 other women gathered at the Yadgare Sehajani Park every Saturday to carry on with the struggle for justice. It was not just compensation that these women were fighting for. They wanted to see Warren Anderson (the then managing director of Union Carbide) standing in the dock of an Indian Court. Buhar said she knew that Anderson will not be punished in her life time but was preparing her three daughters to take on the fight and pass on the baton to the next generation.
Six years have passed since I met Buhar but she still makes it to the Yadgare Sehajani Park every week. Her three daughters give her company while Anderson stays in Florida.
Gas victims have been given a compensation of Rs 50,000 each now. They have complications for life and need regular medication. Strenuous jobs can not be done and if we break the compensation into a monthly package it comes out to Rs 189.
Gas victims can not even spend Rs 10 per day on medicine or on something that could help them better their health. Justice Pathak got them 470 million dollars of compensation. What a paradox.
About the AuthorHemender Sharma A chance reporter, reporting for CNN-IBN from Bhopal. Has reported for the Sun Magazine, Delhi MidDay, Hindustan Times, Asian Age and Sahara Samay in ...Read Morefirst published:November 30, 2006, 18:02 ISTlast updated:November 30, 2006, 18:02 IST
window._taboola = window._taboola || [];_taboola.push({mode: 'thumbnails-mid-article',container: 'taboola-mid-article-thumbnails',placement: 'Mid Article Thumbnails',target_type: 'mix'});
let eventFire = false;
window.addEventListener('scroll', () => {
if (window.taboolaInt && !eventFire) {
setTimeout(() => {
ga('send', 'event', 'Mid Article Thumbnails', 'PV');
ga('set', 'dimension22', "Taboola Yes");
}, 4000);
eventFire = true;
}
});
window._taboola = window._taboola || [];_taboola.push({mode: 'thumbnails-a', container: 'taboola-below-article-thumbnails', placement: 'Below Article Thumbnails', target_type: 'mix' });Latest News
The word paradox for its meaning evokes curiosity more than anything else. And the Bhopal Gas tragedy-the worst ever chemical disaster-explains it better than anything else. While the tragedy left behind sufferers who were gifted complications to live with, for the rest of their lives, there are many who gained from the tragedy as well.
First those who gained from the tragedy:
Justice RS Pathak who brokered the Bhopal agreement on St Valentines day in 1989.Only 3000 people were taken to be dead and 1,20,000 were accepted as injured in the agreement. A full and final compensation of 470 million $ was agreed upon and Justice Pathak later went to the International Court of Justice.
Only 3000 dead? What about the remaining 13,274 people whose relatives were subsequently awarded compensation by the courts. Where did they come from? Also 5,73,000 people have been compensated for the deformities that they sustained.
Mr Arjun Singh the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. Perhaps for all what he did has been sufficiently rewarded. He rose to be the number two in the Narsimha Rao cabinet and continues to contribute towards the Indian polity in ways that he knows best.
Mr Swaraj Puri the then Superintendent of Police of Bhopal who rose to be the Director General of the state police. He was removed from the post after court directed the Economic Offences Wing of the state government to look into a complaint against him. He had allegedly changed the name of his father to get his son admitted into an engineering college through the NRI Quota.
Social Workers who have become globe trotters and lecture people across the world on chemical disasters. They are so many of them that there is no point in naming them.
And now the sufferers with a bit of a backgrounder:
There was a sound on the door of the one roomed house of Shejadi Buhar in Old Bhopal around three in the morning of December 3,1984. Buhar then 26 and already a widow, woke her three minor daughters and mustered enough courage to open the door only to be greeted by a splash of methyl isocyanide. The deadly gas that leaked from the Union carbide factory at around 10.30 pm had reached Barkheri but Buhar thought someone had been burning red chillies in the mandi. She stayed in her room the whole night and went to the Hamidia Hospital only the next day where she found her father searching for her amongst a heap of dead bodies. Buhar survived.
I met Buhar in December 2000. It was after a lot of coaxing from Amit Sen Gupta, the edit page in charge of the newspaper that I worked for. I had to write for the Off Track column and was a bit apprehensive. I did write and after meeting Buhar it was with considerable ease. I made it to the edit page for the first time in my life so can also be counted amongst the gainers from the tragedy.
Buhar told me she along with almost 500 other women gathered at the Yadgare Sehajani Park every Saturday to carry on with the struggle for justice. It was not just compensation that these women were fighting for. They wanted to see Warren Anderson (the then managing director of Union Carbide) standing in the dock of an Indian Court. Buhar said she knew that Anderson will not be punished in her life time but was preparing her three daughters to take on the fight and pass on the baton to the next generation.
Six years have passed since I met Buhar but she still makes it to the Yadgare Sehajani Park every week. Her three daughters give her company while Anderson stays in Florida.
Gas victims have been given a compensation of Rs 50,000 each now. They have complications for life and need regular medication. Strenuous jobs can not be done and if we break the compensation into a monthly package it comes out to Rs 189.
Gas victims can not even spend Rs 10 per day on medicine or on something that could help them better their health. Justice Pathak got them 470 million dollars of compensation. What a paradox.
Comments
0 comment