In the midst of the political storm over the Bhopal tragedy case verdict, the records of the trial court show that the Central Bureau of Investigation had sought the dilution of the stringent charges against Union Carbide Corporation's Chief Executive Officer Warren Anderson, on the lines of the relief given by the Supreme Court in the case against the Indian accused.
Despite the attempts made by the opposition to keep the Bhopal tragedy alive, the Congress leadership has made efforts to put a deliberate closure on the issue.
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.
As the prime minister asked the Group of Ministers on Bhopal tragedy to meet immediately, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is a member of the GoM, said on Monday that the panel can probe under what circumstances the industrial disaster took place and how the punishment for the culprits was reduced.
Battling charges over escape of Warren Anderson days after the Bhopal tragedy, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday sought to give a new spin on the issue, saying Arjun Singh took the decision on then Union Carbide chief executive officer's exit keeping in view the law and order situation.
Former Union Minister Arun Nehru, a close aide of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, claimed on Sunday that Arjun Singh as Madhya Pradesh chief minister had taken the decision to release then Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson after the Bhopal tragedy and that Gandhi had no role in it.
The United States said on Friday that it would "carefully evaluate" any request from India to bring to justice Warren Anderson, the former CEO of Union Carbide, who is wanted in a case related to the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy that killed several thousands of people. "...if the government of India makes such a request of us, we will carefully evaluate it," State Department spokesman P J Crowley, told reporters in response to a question.
A senior leader described the atmosphere in the party as similar to a gang war and said the issue appeared to be gathering serious momentum. Another leader said it is interesting that while Rajiv Gandhi is being attacked and accused openly of working under American pressure, the PMO is absolutely quiet, not saying a word though it is expected that the government would have more facts at its disposal and would be able to add to the ongoing debate.
The attack over the escape of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson on Friday appeared to be zeroing in on the then Madhya Pradesh chief minister Arjun Singh, with Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and R K Dhawan demanding an answer from the veteran leader.
'Arjun Singh was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh back in 1984. He is still on Indian soil, and, presumably, available for questioning.'
Twenty-six years after one of the worst industrial disasters in the world -- the Bhopal gas tragedy -- claimed thousands of lives, a local court found all the eight accused guilty of criminal negligence in the case.
A Bhopal court on Friday ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to arrest former Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson and produce him without delay, prompting survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy to celebrate on the streets.On the intervening night of Decmber 2 and 3, 1984, Union Carbide Ltd had spewed methyl isocyanate, a lethal toxic gas, killing thousands of people and maiming thousands of others.
The mystery about who facilitated the escape of Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson's from the country after the Bhopal gas tragedy may never be solved.
Dr Singh told media persons accompanying him on his way back home from Toronto that he did not raise the issue in his discussions with US President Barack Obama during his meeting with him on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit.
The handling of the Bhopal disaster is reflective of the highly feudal nature of our political culture, writes AV Rajwade
The Union cabinet will discuss the report of the Group of Ministers on the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy on Thursday.
Senior Congress leader Arjun Singh, who is in the eye of a storm over the issue of safe passage given to the then Union Carbide Corporation chairman Warren Anderson in the wake of the Bhopal gas tragedy, has sought to lob the ball in the Centre's court and the party declined to join issue.
The Anderson issue showed no signs of abating on Friday with P V Narasimha Rao's son Ranga Rao suggesting that his father would not have taken a decision on his own about granting 'safe passage' to the Union Carbide chief a few days after the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
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.
Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily on Saturday attacked a top aide of Rajiv Gandhi for suggesting that the then prime minister may have had a role in the release of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson accused in Bhopal gas case, saying he was a new convert to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena camp.
With the circumstances under which Warren Anderson was flown out in a state plane after the gas disaster coming under scrutiny, a former Madhya Pradesh aviation official says he received a call from the then Chief Minister Arjun Singh's office to arrange for his departure.
The Union Carbide Corporation gave a compensation of $470 million (Rs 715 crore) after the toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide factory on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, killed over 3,000 people and affected 1.02 lakh others.
The civil suit was filed on behalf of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy, which killed thousands in 1984.
Even Charlton Heston intervened on his behalf.
BJP alleged that banks were 'pushed' into giving Rs 3,100 crore loan to him and unfreezing his bank accounts in 2012.
Sushma Swaraj packs in the punches against the Congress.
In his book Arun Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer, makes a dig at Hardeep Singh Puri, former diplomat, Union minister and BJP nominee from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, for Rajiv's faulty Sri Lankan policy, writes Rasheed Kidwai.
Meetings and protest marches in support of the demands of the victims marked the 29th anniversary of the Bhopal gas catastrophe here today.
Just months before the deadly gas leak in Bhopal killed 15,000 people, journalist Rajkumar Keswani -- who passed into the ages on Friday, May 21, 2021 -- had warned that the 'city stood on the edge of a volcano'.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday hit back at the Congress party for releasing pictures of Narendra Modi with Lalit Modi and alleged that it showed "political bankruptcy".
Families of the deceased and people who bore the brunt of the industrial disaster are now signing a petition, to be sent to the Supreme Court, requesting it to start hearing a curative petition of the government filed in December 2010 for more compensation.
Swaraj tore into the Congress, saying it had helped Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi and Bhopal gas leak accused Warren Anderson flee from India.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to bring back former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi to face the law.
Victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy have filed an appeal in a higher court in New York contesting a lower court's decision that Union Carbide Corporation cannot be sued for the ongoing contamination from the chemical plant.
Terming court's decision to summon Dow Chemicals in the Bhopal gas tragedy case as an "important step", Amnesty International today demanded that the company must acknowledge its responsibility towards the survivors of the 1984 industrial disaster.
This is how films that bring to life man-made industrial disasters should be made, says Prasanna D Zore.
Meanwhile, Gandhi said Modi has betrayed the people, claiming that he had not fulfilled promises of providing two crore jobs every year and "depositing" Rs 15 lakh in their bank accounts.
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.
'It is time someone told BJP leaders that they were not elected to remind people of Congress corruption. The people of India voted for Narendra Modi and the BJP because they believed that he and his party were clean, unlike the Congress-led government,' says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
The Congress party's campaign for resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Parliament on Wednesday came to a naught as the minister made a spirited defence.
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