Senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani on Thursday night suggested that the government, instead of trying to bring back former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson, should ensure action against those who had enabled him to leave India in 1984 after the Bhopal gas leak tragedy.
'Arjun Singh was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh back in 1984. He is still on Indian soil, and, presumably, available for questioning.'
Amid questions over how the then Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson fled India, the central government said on Thursday that the group of ministers set up on the Bhopal gas tragedy issue will look into all aspects related to the incident and facts would be presented before the nation.
The Union cabinet will discuss the report of the Group of Ministers on the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy on Thursday.
The government is not likely to succeed in reopening the settlement issue in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, said noted jurist Fali S Nariman.
According to the sources in the government, in a major U-turn, the Union law ministry has submitted a note to the Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram on the Bhopal gas tragedy, where it has, reportedly, recommended that the government of India should undertake the cleanup operation of the site of Union Carbide.
Home Minister P Chidamabaram said that the Group of Ministers on Bhopal Gas leak disaster will finalise its report on Monday."The GoM will have two sessions on Saturday and Sunday, the Home Minister said.
Two women survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy will go on an indefinite hunger strike here from May 1 to press Dow Chemicals, the present owner of Union Carbide, to own up responsibility for the tragedy and assume the liabilities.
A group of people in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, performed 'Shavasana' (corpse pose) to protest against the proposed disposal of Union Carbide waste, connected to the Bhopal gas tragedy, in the district. They claim the disposal would harm the health of locals and the environment. The waste has been brought from Bhopal for incineration in Pithampur. Protests have been ongoing since the arrival of the waste last month, and local authorities are conducting an awareness campaign to address concerns.
The waste disposal at the plant in Dhar district's Pithampur industrial area was undertaken following directives of the Madhya Pradesh high court.
T N Ninan writes on how the United States is handling the BP oil spill disaster and what India needed to do in the horrific Bhopal gas tragedy.
A synergy of the 'very worst' of American and Indian cultures led to the Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984, a local court has held, adding that Union Carbide cynically used a third world country to escape from the strict safety standards imposed at home."The tragedy was caused by the synergy of the very worst of American and Indian cultures. An American corporation cynically used a third world country to escape from the strict safety standards imposed at home," said the judge.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the Central Bureau of Investigation for approaching it 16 years after it had diluted in September 1996 the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy case.
Mittal said any company, which does business that can cause loss of life of a magnitude where an entire township could be wiped out, needs to be responsible enough not only on technology but also that the backup is enough.
The reconstituted Group of Ministers on the Bhopal gas tragedy will meet on Friday, Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday, a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked the panel to submit its report to the Cabinet in 10 days.
Reuters reported that a spokesman for Dow's Union Carbide denied the report.
Two men were hospitalised after they set themselves afire on Friday amid a bandh call in Madhya Pradesh's Pithampur against the planned disposal of 337 tonnes of Union Carbide waste in the industrial town, an official said.
Even as the 26th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster is being observed in the city on Friday, its victims continue to be plagued with a number of problems that have not been resolved over the years.
'All the political parties did nothing. These parties talk of helping the poor but no one actually did anything,' says social activist Abdul Jabber.
A TV channel reproduced Anderson and Arjun Singh's bytes, before the Union Carbide chief left the country on December 7, 1984, three days after the world's worst industrial disaster. "House arrest or no arrest or bail, no bail, I am free to go home...There is a law of the United States...India, bye, bye, Thank you," Anderson had said.
Reaffirming its stand, the International Olympic Committee Wednesday rejected calls from the Indian Government to drop Dow Chemicals as sponsor of the London Games because of its links to the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
The first round of trial incineration of 10 tonnes of waste connected to the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy has begun in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh, amid tight security. The Supreme Court refused to intervene in the MP High Court's order directing the transfer and disposal of waste at a private company-operated plant in Pithampur. The trial incineration is being conducted in the presence of scientists from the central and state pollution control boards. Protesters have expressed apprehensions about harm to the human population and environment due to the disposal of this waste, but the state government has rejected these concerns, saying that solid arrangements are in place for safe disposal.
Madhya Pradesh police have registered five cases against protesters in Pithampur who opposed the planned disposal of 337 tonnes of toxic waste linked to the Bhopal gas tragedy. Protests erupted on Friday after the waste reached Ramky Enviro company, where the incineration is to be carried out. Authorities imposed prohibitory orders, and police dispersed a mob that marched to the company premises. Two people attempted self-immolation during the protests, but were prevented by the crowd. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said the state government only transported the waste with safety parameters in compliance with court orders.
The magnitude of outrage triggered by the miscarriage of justice in the Bhopal gas leak tragedy is a moment of truth for all of us, says Rajni Bakshi.
The extradition request of former Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson, the main accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, is still under examination as no decision has been taken by the United States Department of Justice in this regard, the Central Bureau of Investigation said in its status report filed with a local court.
The Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded a judicial review of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's role in then Union Carbide Corporation Chief, Warren Anderson's exit from India after Bhopal gas tragedy.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday said he was 'disappointed' that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not discuss the extradition issue of Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson and the compensation for Bhopal gas disaster victims during his meeting with United States President Barack Obama. "It was expected that the prime minister would discuss the Bhopal gas tragedy with Obama, but he did not do so," Chouhan told reporters.
The Dow Chemical Company, which owns Union Carbide Corporation, on Tuesday said the Indian government had "fully released" UCC and its subsidiary in Bhopal from any civil liability for the 1984 gas tragedy.
Residents of Tarpura village near Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh, are protesting against the incineration of 337 tons of toxic waste from the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy at a local facility. They fear the process will be hazardous to health and the environment, despite government assurances. The protest comes after the Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered the transfer of the waste to Pithampur within four weeks. The incident has raised concerns about the potential contamination of soil, underground water, and water sources in the area. The administration has deployed a large police force and held meetings with local residents to address their concerns.
Veteran Congress leader Arjun Singh who was Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister at the time of the Bhopal gas disaster in December 1984 today said he would give "appropriate reply at an appropriate time" on the issue.
The Indian government had argued that under Section 304(A), it was an extraditable offence as per the provisions of the Extradition Treaty between India and the US.
The Congress Core Committee met on Thursday evening to discuss the Bhopal gas leak and to give directions to the Group of Ministers who would be meeting on Friday afternoon to find a way of breaking the impasse created by the court verdict in handing out punishment to the guilty, said highly placed sources.
Former Union Carbide India chairman Keshub Mahindra and four others, who were convicted on June 7 in the Bhopal gas leak case, were on Tuesday granted bail by a local court. UCIL former managing director Vijay Gokhle, former vice president Kishore Kamdar, former works manager J Mukund and former production manager S P Choudhry were granted bail by Chief Judicial Magistrate R V Singh.
Saluting the people who saved scores of life, YRF announced this project on the same day that the tragedy struck Bhopal 37 years back.
Next week's 'Recover your environment' workshop in Hyderabad is a tiny step towards compensating for how little has changed since the Bhopal tragedy, says Rajni Bakshi.
United States-based Union Carbide Corporation has filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding early hearing on the government's curative petition in the Bhopal gas disaster case, saying delays are being used to besmirch the reputation of its parent firm, Dow Chemicals. UCC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, in the petition sought a fixed timetable for hearing and early disposal of the curative petition filed by the Union government in December 2010.
Pablo Bartholomew, the legendary Indian photojournalist whose searing images from the Bhopal gas tragedy stunned a nation's conscience 30 years ago, speaks to Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com.
Photojournalist Chandu Mhatre, one of the first to reach Bhopal after India's worst industrial disaster ravaged the city, remembers his worst seven days, in a conversation with Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com.
Questioning Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for holding two bungalows in the state capital, Aam Aadmi Party workers tried to stage a protest in front of one of the accommodations but were prevented by the police.
