Bhopal Tragedy

Reply to Mr. Ramaswami’s letter to the Editor of the Indian Express regarding Bhopal tragedy

Dear Sir,

In the letter to the editor, you labeled the 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy as an accident. Several warnings regarding the leakage of MIC (methyl isocyanate), methyl carbaryl chloride etc., reports issued by scientists within the corporation were ignored baselessly. Even the MIC plants were not operational for four years before the accident occurred. Hence, it cannot be regarded as an accident. And, even if it was a mere negligence on the part of the eight managers, negligence that claimed thousands of lives is not a pardonable crime.

A mistake left unaddressed may result in, or encourage another crime. When people die in road accidents or overcrowded buses, more often than not, it is people’s own negligence. Also, the extent, severity or the after effects of any of these accidents are not even a small percentage of the same caused because of the gas leakage at Bhopal. And we are dealing with people’s lives here. We can’t say a crime which killed 1000 people is ten times worse than one that killed 100 people; each life is important and hence, a negligence (despite continued warnings) that claimed innumerable lives and has left lasting ill-effects on generations should be treated severely by law.

The Chairman and CEO of Union Carbide India Limited was termed fugitive by the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal for not turning up on any of the summons. Such irresponsible acts when ignored by the law encourages more people to continue with negligence which could claim lives of millions more and endless suffering for many more. The government and the judiciary should punish the person/organization responsible for such incidents to caution other people against repeating such acts of severe negligence.

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