A just decision for Bhopal Gas Tragedy

Yesterday, the decision for union carbide came. The case is important for all the Indians as this marks the long 26 years of the greatest industrial accident in the world.  An incident in which over 25,000people lost their lives and lakhs were effected by the leakage of the deadly gas from the Union Carbide chemical factory in Bhopal, India.

Needless to say, like all high profile cases involving the high end, filthy rich poeple or cases involving bureaucrats and industrialists or incidents involving global executives from MNCs, the verdict for this case as well was not very much different in the substance and reiterated our "faith" in the Indian Judicial system that we can not trust it.

There were eight accused and seven were found guity while one has already died. The accused were fined Rs. 25000 and two year Jail time. A lot of hue and cry was raised over it that the justice system has let us down and stricter punishment for the accused. I, for one, can not understand the reason for all this because:

• When has the justice ever been transparent or fair to the public in general that you should set your expectations on it being so this time around. Now, it would have been a different matter altogether were you the spawn of a politician or an industrialist or probably executives from a leading petrochemical giant. Then, and only then, every one from the peon to the constable upwards till the judges would have been frantic to save your ass. but, as we all know, those who did die did not belong to any such elite class... So fair enough!
• Some people were crying foul over the fact that the accused were fined merely 25000 while according to various estimates about 25000 people died in that incident and about 5 lakh effected with repercussions being felt till date and babies being born with congenital defects till date. That's about Re. 1 per dead person. I say what did the poor people think they are worth? A lifetime of meals to their family? Surely those poor people who dies could not have been worth more than Re. 1 or else they would have been staying somewhere else and would not have been effected by the gas tragedy.
•  Not withstanding the number of people died and got effected by the incident; I think that Union Carbide did their part in trying to reduce the overgrowing population of the country. Obviously several other prestigious institutions also feel the same way looking at the various awards conferred to  Keshub Mahindra (an accused in Bhopal Tragedy). For further details, please refer here.
• Some people are also blaming Dow and Union Carbide officials for their lack luster attitude towards the apathy of the people of Bhopal. Some find fault with our judicial system. I say, when our own government is not concerned with its own people, why do we keep on blaming others?

PS: Is anybody following the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? I am sure we are bound to see lots of action in that case as well.

PPS: Some interesting links:
http://bhopal.net/2010dharna/blog/?p=3365
http://in.yfittopostblog.com/2010/06/07/the-big-story-bhopal-tragedy-verdict/
http://shekharkapur.com/blog/2010/06/bhopal-gas-tragedy-the-great-sell-out-by-the-government-of-india/

Image Courtesy: khatarkar.files.wordpress.com