Bhopal Gas Tragedy - Essay Example

Bhopal Gas Tragedy The Bhopal disaster or gas tragedy was occurred on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at Bhopal, the capital city of Indian State Madhya Pradesh. American Company Union Carbide was responsible for this tragedy. The CEO of Union carbide was Warren Anderson at that time. Union Carbide had a pesticide plant at Bhopal from which they manufactured pesticides and other products. Because of this tragedy, around 500,000 people suffered a lot and many of them sacrificed death and plenty of others are still living , fighting with numerous diseases. “15,000 people have died since 1984, when a gas leak at the Carbide plant poisoned the Bhopal air on a December night” (Shapoo &Vaidyanathan). According to some unofficial sources, the death toll could be even bigger. Union carbide had 50.9% share in UCIL, the company which caused this huge tragedy. The Indian government had control over the remaining 49.1% of the shares. Supreme Court of India allowed Union carbide to sell out its shares to Eveready Industries India Limited in 1994 even though the compensation cases were pending in the Civil and criminal courts in Bhopal, India. In 2010, one of the district court of Bhopal convicted seven ex-employees of UCL along with its chairman Warren Anderson. The court declared 2 years imprisonment as punishment and $ 2000 as fine to these culprits. However, Anderson refused to accept these punishments, citing the reason that Indian courts do not have the authority to punish him since he is an American citizen. Anderson’s argument has caused many controversies and debates with respect to international law. It should be noted that plenty of companies operating internationally at present. It is quite possible that these companies may create problems in overseas soil and the question of compensation arises then. Moreover the compensation distributed for the victims also created controversies in India. There are plenty of people who believe that the compensation given to the victims are not sufficient. To get more insights into the topic of compensation, while companies operate internationally, this research analyses Bhopal gas tragedy compensation case. Out of 10,29,517 registered cases claiming compensation, 5,74,376 have been awarded compensation after adjudication, said Minister of Chemical and Fertilizers, Srikant Kumar Jena. "A total sum of Rs. 15500.9 million (Rs.1549.19 crore) has been disbursed in 5,73,920 cases upto 31.3.2012. A further sum of Rs. 15105.3 million (Rs.1510.53 crore) has been paid as pro-rata compensation to 5,62,789 of these cases upto 31.3.2012, as per the orders of the Supreme Court. In the remaining 11,587 cases, pro-rata amount is yet to be disbursed," said Srikant Kumar Jena in Lok Sabha (Singh). After reading these statistics presented by the Indian minister one would believe that the compensation dispersed in this case was more than fair. However, a person who analyses this case more deeply may arrive at different conclusions. It should be noted that nobody has any idea about how many of unaddressed victims are there in this tragedy. It is a fact that majority of the victims in this tragedy was those who were waiting for trains in the nearby railway stations. Moreover, many others who died in this disaster were yet to be identified. Government is dispersing compensation only to the identified victims and that also after around 28 years from the tragedy. Majority of the victims who survived this tragedy have already died within this 28 years of period. Under such circumstances, how the government can claim that justice is given to the victims. It should be noted that only the relatives of the victims are currently getting the compensation since the victims are no more to receive this compensation. It is difficult for the government to justify the delays caused in this case to disperse the compensation. The major objective of giving compensation is to provide some kind of relief to the victims. But, in this case, the victims failed to get any compensation immediately after the tragedy and hence the logic of dispersing compensation at present is questionable. “In a statement by the ministry, it claimed that the remaining claimants have not approached the Welfare Commissioner's office for receiving the compensation” (Singh). “Claims of more than 11,500 Bhopal gas leak victims are pending with the Madhya Pradesh government due to their “non-appearance.””( 1,500 Bhopal Gas Victims Yet To Collect Compensation). It is illogical for the government to cite these reasons for justifying their action. How can the government anticipate that people may wait around 30 years to get compensation? What is the purpose of providing compensation after such a lengthy period? Government is saying that they already notified in the newspapers and televisions about the dispersing of compensation. These arguments of the government seem to be silly and it clearly shows the failure of the administration in providing justice to the victims. In December 2011, after waiting for 26 years, Bhopal victims staged a rail roko to press the Central and State Governments to submit accurate figures of dead and injured in a revised compensation claims case filed in the Supreme Court. Cases, including on serious charges of attempt to murder were registered against 2000 people, including elderly women and children. From Chattisgarh to Madhya Pradesh to Delhi to Tamilnadu, people in the Government are the same. “They see poor as objects of charity, pity, ridicule or as seditious upstarts that need to be taught a lesson for their audacity to speak out,” the survivors said (Bhopal survivors support Koodankulam struggle). Indian government is currently establishing a nuclear power plant at Koodankulam, Tamil Nadu in collaboration with Russian government. Plenty of protests are currently going against this project. People in southern India believe that their fate could be in jeopardy once this power plant started to function. They know very well that what happened at Bhopal and what happened at Chernobyl, Three Mile Islands and Fukushima. Indian government has no idea about who will compensate the victims in case a tragedy occurs at Koodankulam. Bhopal tragedy victims have joined hands with Koodankulam protestors to fight against the nuclear power project. Russia has already issued a statement which indicates that they will not take any responsibility of compensating the victims if a disaster occurs at Koodankulam. In other words, as in the case of Bhopal tragedy, only the Indian government has the responsibility of providing compensation to the public even though profits are shared by the government and the foreign companies investing in such projects. It is difficult to digest the fact that companies operating in foreign soil do not have the responsibility to provide compensation to the victims in case of any disaster. Bhopal gas tragedy case reminds us the necessity of making international laws, which prevent international companies from washing their hands once any disaster occurs because of their activities. Bhopal victims believe that the present compensation is insufficient to repair the damage caused by this disaster. Life is extremely difficult near the tragedy area even now. The environment and the eco system in this area are still not functioning properly because of the after effects of this tragedy. The rebuilding process of the environment needs millions of dollars. However, the government is trying to put dust in the eyes of the uneducated people near the tragedy area. According to an agreement of February 15, 1989 facilitated by the Supreme Court, Union Carbide Corporation, US provided a compensation of USD 470 million (Rs 715 crore) meant for 1,02,000 affected people and 3000 people who lost their lives in the toxic gas release from the Union Carbide Factory in the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984. Then, the Supreme Court, asked the Centre to provide additional funds to the Bhopal gas tragedy victims, if their number swelled which indeed went up later (Bhopal gas tragedy victims seek more compensation) The judgement of Indian Supreme Court is definitely surprising. Before assessing the actual damage, the court fixed and lump sum amount as the compensation and asked Union carbide to provide it. When the court realised that the amount is not adequate, it asked the Indian government to provide additional funds to the victims. This is strange. This judgement clearly indicates the inability of courts in persuading foreign companies to pay more as compensation in manmade disaster cases. According to B.B. Srivastava, the Bhopal registrar in-charge of the office of the welfare commissioner, “'We did not get the final list of cancer and renal failure victims,' Giving details of the disbursement. Moreover the amount already given to the claimants will be deducted” (Distribution of gas tragedy compensation begins - but not for all from the total compensation). These words clearly suggest that the government is searching in the darkness for the actual victims of Bhopal tragedy. It is difficult for a patient staying near the tragedy area to prove that his disease is caused by this incident. Government machineries need cemented proofs to disperse compensation. As in the case of many other things, this compensation could reach the hands of officials and other influential people. Such people can easily make proofs to prove that they are victims of this tragedy using the loopholes of Indian administrative procedures. One of the spurring facts about this compensation is that the maximum amount is only around 1000000 rupees. Only few people got this amount as compensation. This amount was a decent one if it was dispersed in 1980’s. However, money devaluation took place for the last few decades and this amount seems to be extremely low at present. It is difficult to compensate human life with some money. However, the court could have asked the government to disperse more amount as compensation. The victims have already questioned the norms considered by the courts to decide the compensation. Majority of the victims got only 25000 rupees as compensation. It should be noted that 25000 rupees is nothing in India at present. The victims of Bhopal gas tragedy felt cheated after hearing the court’s verdict about the compensation. Plenty of media people and other sociologists in India do believe that the current compensation amount is inadequate and it is mocking the ordinary people of India who happens to be the victims of this tragedy. It should be noted that majority of the victims of this tragedy were uneducated people. Both the government and the courts are playing cards to cheat the victims. At the same time, Dow Chemicals, the present owner of the gas plant which caused has other ideas. Dow Chemicals, which owns Union Carbide since 2001, has opposed in the Supreme Court the petition filed by the Centre for enhancement of compensation from Rs 750 crore to Rs 7,700 crore for the victims of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. In an affidavit, Dow Chemicals has said it will not pay more compensation for Bhopal victims as the settlement reached in 1989 for USD 470 million was more than adequate and fair (Bhopal gas tragedy: Dow Chemicals opposes higher compensation for victims) Dow chemicals is the present owner of Union Carbide plant at Bhopal. They have already raised protests against the amount of compensation, fixed by the courts. Nobody can blame Dow Chemicals for their arguments since they were not involved in this disaster. However, they should have analysed the future compensation claims when they decided to purchase the gas plant. Union carbide rightly calculated that the compensation would be such a huge amount and hence they cleverly sold out their shares and escaped from their responsibilities to compensate the victims. The government of India is the ultimate culprit in the case of Bhopal gas tragedy. It not only failed to enforce enough security measures for the functioning of a gas plant like the one Union carbide owned at Bhopal. Moreover, it helped the major culprit Warren Anderson to escape from India even though he was in India at the time of this tragedy. Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is believed to be the culprit who allowed Anderson to escape from India. Many Indians believe that an arrest of Anderson would have forced Union Carbide to disperse more amount as compensation. However, government of India failed to do so even though thousands of innocent people lost their life and properties. People blaming the State. State blaming the Centre. Centre had no body to blame. What did they could have done to save their face? They appointed a Group of ministers (GoM) to probe into the matter. GoM after long hours of deliberations came out with a way to appease the victims. They simply decided to grant a whopping compensation. But apparently the Finance minister (in league with the Law minister) never considered the fact that the compensation granted is being nicked out of the pocket of an Indian taxpayer!”(Anand). International laws needed to be strengthened especially in the present globalised era. Majority of the prominent companies are operating internationally at present to exploit the opportunities provided by globalization. It is often said that we are living in a globalized world. Moreover, countries are competing each other to attract foreign direct investment. India and China like countries have already liberalized many of their rules and regulations to attract FDI. It is a fact that FDI has vital roles in the development of a country at present. At the same time, these countries should realise that blind acceptance of FDI may cause huge damages as in the case of Bhopal gas tragedy. It is necessary to strengthen international laws in such a way that investing companies have more liabilities and responsibilities if they cause any damage to the life and properties of the people. Corporate social responsibility is a talking point in the business world at present. Modern generation is interested in dealing with companies, which fosters sustainable development. They do not like to deal with companies such as Union Carbide or Enron. It is a fact that corporate companies are exploiting the natural resources while operating in a particular place. Therefore, they cannot stay away from their responsibility to help the people in the communities in which they operate. International laws should be redefined and restructured so that corporate world should take more responsibility while operating in a foreign country. To conclude, Union Carbide cheated victims of Bhopal gas tragedy in many ways. They washed their hands from the responsibilities of giving adequate compensation to the victims. Indian government and judiciary failed to compel Union carbide to provide enough compensation to the victims. Compensation for the namesake was dispersed only after 28 years from the date of occurrence of this tragedy. Delayed justice is just like denial of justice. The victims of this tragedy were not only got delayed justice but also inadequate amount as compensation. The compensation issue of Bhopal tragedy reminds us the dangers associated with the blind welcoming of foreign direct investments. Neither the government nor the court succeeded in providing justice to the victims of Bhopal tragedy. International laws should be strengthened further to put more liabilities over the shoulder of companies, which operate, in foreign soil.   Works Cited “11,500 Bhopal Gas Victims Yet To Collect Compensation”. Press Trust of India, Sept. 12, 2012. Web. 27 November 2012. Anand, Nikita. “Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Compensation to victims…A Punishment for others”. 2010. Web. 27 November 2012. “Bhopal gas tragedy: Dow Chemicals opposes higher compensation for victims”. 2011. Web. 27 November 2012. “Bhopal Survivors Support Koodankulam struggle”. 2012. Web. 27 November 2012. “Bhopal Gas Tragedy Victims Seek More Compensation”. 2009. Web. 27 November 2012. “Distribution Of Gas Tragedy Compensation Begins - But Not For All From The Total Compensation”. Web. 27 November 2012. Shapoo, Rubina Khan & Vaidyanathan A. “Supreme Court reopens Bhopal Gas Tragedy Case”. Web. 27 November 2012. Singh, Rorrkychand. “Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Govt Disburses Compensation in 5,74,376 Cases”. Web. 27 November 2012. Read More