Crime and Punishment

After 26 years of painful wait, the final verdict has been delivered this year for the Bhopal Gas Tragedy case. And what was the verdict? Only 8 convicted for a maximum of 2 years in jail, for which they were granted bail immediately. And this is for the gross negligence and greed which caused thousands on deaths, tens of thousands of injuries and birth defects. Till date, children are born in Bhopal with birth defects which can very well be attributed to the leak of leathal mythyle isocyanate gas in that cursed night of 1984.

This is a case of Justice delayed AND Justice denied.

Poinsionous mythyle isocyanate gas leaked at midnight from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal and killed thousands in their sleep. But they were perhaps the fortunate ones; thousands of others suffred months, even years of sickness; were paralysed to various extents, lost eyesights, developed cancers and waited for a slow, painful death.

While their losses were incompensateable, at least they could still have some consolence if the people responsible were brought to justice. But after long and tedious judicial process which lasted for over 25 years involving numerous trials, wittnesses and cross examinations, they were finally told that no one was practically responsible for their peril.

Their own government simply cheated them. Indian government took the case from victims' hands and claimed to represent the case in their behalf. And then went for an out of court settlement with the Union Carbide and agreed for a peanuts amount of settlement money ($470 million). With this money, Union Carbide (and their present taker Dow Jones) washed their hands off the whole episode; they were free of all criminal and civil liabilities regarding this case.

The central government investigating agency did not furnish the required proofs; the Indian government did not excersise its extradiation treaty with America to bring Union Carbide chairman to Inida to face the trial. And America did not bother to try him in its own judicial system either; who cares, if a few thousands poor Indians die thousands of miles away? That's no reason to bother an wealthy American businessman!

Of course it is a different matter if the disaster happens in American soil affecting American people. Just look what happened when the oil leaked from BP well in gulf of Mexico. BP top bosses were grilled in Senate, made to set aside a compensation pot of 2 billion dollars and had to spend billions more to seal the leak. This was the penalty for causing 11 deaths and putting a few thousands out of business for one season, endangering wild lives and making the American coast dirty.


Yes, the environmental impact of the BP oil leak is enormous, but so it was for the Bhopal gas leak. If the formar is worst environmental disaster for America then the later is that for the whole world.

I'm not advocating for the less severe penalty for BP; they deserve every bit of it and should be punished even more,if possible, for their negligence. American government did a very good job dealing with the situation....making sure that the leak is stopped as soon as possible and that everybody concerned gets compensated.

Bhopal tragedy survivors are not so lucky; their own government betrayed them and the all powerful America, including their Nobel peace prize winner president, could not care less. They are simply not interetsed in brining one of their welthy citizens to trial to provide justice to a bunch of poor, black people in another continent.

The two incidents just show that the value of human life is not same for everybody. The punishments for these two similar crimes are anything but similar or compareable. This could be against the basic rule of justice; but then life is anything but "just".