35mm HiGhLiGhT rEeL

On December 3, 1984 at around 12:00 a.m. exothermic reactions that took place in an underground storage tank of Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, which contained nearly 41 tonnes of Methyl Isocyante (MIC), released highly poisonous gases which engulfed the entire city and cursed the generation to follow. The immediate human death toll, according to official figures was 2500, while the toxic gas was exposed to the 36 out of 56 wards in Bhopal city which consisted of approximately 600,000 to 900,000 people of the city. Of these, 200,000 were below 15 years of age, and 3,000 were pregnant women. Independent organizations recorded 8,000 dead in the first days. Other estimations vary between 10,000 and 30,000. Another 100,000 to 200,000 people are estimated to have permanent injuries of different degrees. There were mass funerals and mass cremations as well as disposal of bodies in the Narmada river. 170,000 people were treated at hospitals and temporary dispensaries. 2,000 buffalo, goats, and other animals were collected and buried. Within a few days, leaves on trees yellowed and fell off. Supplies, including food, became scarce owing to suppliers' safety fears. Fishing was prohibited as well, which caused further supply shortages.

The 'Bhopal Poisonous Gas Leakage (1984) Inquiry Commission' headed by the then sitting judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice N.K.Singh, which was set up by the State Government on 06 December 1984, was abruptly wound up by the Government on 17 December 1985 even before it could complete the inquiry into the causes of the disaster.

In 1991, 3,928 deaths had been certified. 25 years after the gas leak, 390 tonnes of toxic chemical abandoned at the Union Carbide plant continues to leak and pollute the groundwater in the region and affect thousands of residents of Bhopal. On an average, everyday no less than 6000 gas-victims continue to visit the various medical centres in Bhopal, which have been specifically set up for the gas-victims, i.e., victims had made over 2,000,000 visits to the said medical facilities in the year 2008 alone. Victims suffer from a variety of ailments relating to respiratory system, eyes, nervous system, gastro-intestinal system, etc.

Although the Monitoring Committee for Medical Rehabilitation of Bhopal Gas Victims, which was set up by the Supreme Court at the instance of the victim groups on 17 April 2004, have submitted seven reports to the State Government detailing out remedial measures, hardly any action has been taken by the State government regarding the same. Moreover, after the untimely death of its first chairperson, Shri.O.P.Mehra, on 16 June 2008, the post continues to remain vacant and the functioning of the Monitoring Committee has been brought to a standstill. It is highly unfortunate that a committee, which was set up by the Supreme Court, has remained completely dysfunctional without a Chairperson for more than one and half years.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had discontinued all medical research relating to the disaster way back in 1994. The discontinuance of medical research relating to the disaster for 15 critical years tantamount to criminal negligence on the part of the concerned ICMR officials, who have displayed utter indifference towards the wretched fate of the hapless victims of the Bhopal disaster. Due to the persistent demand of the organisations representing the gas victims, the Supreme Court had passed an Order on 17 August 2004 to set up an Advisory Committee on Medical Research under the aegis of ICMR to review and set out the renewed agenda for research on Bhopal. Unfortunately the committee met only thrice and was unable to pursue its own recommendations because of the disinterest of Dr. N.K Ganguly, the then DG of ICMR and the ex-offico chairperson of the Advisory Committee. Although the new Director General of ICMR, Dr.V.M.Katoch, had promised to restart research work under the guidance of the Advisory Committee, nothing has materialised to date. Dr.P.M.Bhargava and Dr.C.Sathyamala were nominated by the victims’ organisations as their representatives in the Advisory Committee. In the recently held meeting of the Advisory Committee on 13 August 2009, Dr.C.Sathyamala made a Written Submission regarding the inaction on the part of the Advisory Committee regarding its own recommendations.

On 14/15 February 1989, the Government of India had arrived at a settlement with the accused, Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), USA, for a sum of 470 million US Dollars (effectively only about Rs.713 Crores at 1989 prices was paid by UCC) on the assumption that the number of gas victims was only around 105,000, including 3000 dead. (Out of the settlement sum of Rs.713 crores, Rs.113 crores was set-aside for those who had lost property, livestock, etc., and for specialised medical treatment.) In other words, Rs.600 crores was to be disbursed among the assumed number of 105,000 gas-victims as compensation at an average of Rs.57,143/- per victim at the 1989 value of the rupee. However, as per the latest report of the Office of the Welfare Commissioner, as on 30 December 2008, no less than 574,367 gas victims were actually awarded compensation, which works out to an average of Rs.12,410/- per victim at the 1989 value of the rupee despite almost the entire settlement sum of Rs.713 crores at the 1989 value of rupee being utilised for the purpose. This means that on an average the amount of compensation that each gas victim has received was only about one-fifth of the amount that he/she should have received as per the terms of the Bhopal Settlement, which itself was a measly amount. After the accident, no one under the age of 18 was registered.

The number of children exposed to the gases was at least 200,000. Widow pension of the rate of Rs 200/per month (later Rs 750) was provided. Each claimant was to be categorised by a doctor. In court, the claimants were expected to prove "beyond reasonable doubt" that death or injury in each case was attributable to exposure. In 1992, 44 percent of the claimants still had to be medically examined. From 1990 interim relief of Rs 200 was paid to everyone in the family who was born before the disaster. In 2007, 1,029,517 cases were registered and decided. The number of cases awarded were 574,304 and number of rejected cases 455,213. Total compensation awarded was Rs.1,546.47 crores. Because of the smallness of the sums paid and the denial of interest to the claimants, a sum as large as Rs 10 billion is expected to be left over after all claims have been settled. When UCC wanted to sell its shares in UCIL, it was directed by the Supreme Court to finance a 500-bed hospital for the medical care of the survivors. Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) was inaugurated in 1998.

The Monitoring Committee was exempted from monitoring the quality of health care provided to the gas-victims at the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC), which was set up by a trust appointed by the Supreme Court of India in 1994, was an unfortunate decision. As of now, the BMHRC is not accountable to either the State or the Central Government or any other independent body about the manner in which it is functioning. The BMHRC does not submit periodical reports even to the Apex Court nor does it properly audit its accounts. Many of the departments of the hospital are under-staffed and functioning to less than fifty per cent of their capacity. Moreover the emphasis is treating private paying-patients than on providing appropriate treatment to gas-victims. Since more than Rs.600 crores of public money is involved, appropriate recommendations should be made by the Central Government to the Supreme Court forthwith to end this state of anarchy and lack of accountability on the part of the BMHRC.

Union Carbide sold its Indian subsidiary, which had operated the Bhopal plant, to Eveready Industries India Limited, the flagship company of the B.M. Khaitan Group, in 1994. The Dow Chemical Company purchased Union Carbide in 2001 for $10.3 billion in stock and debt. Dow has publicly stated several times that the Union Carbide settlement payments have already fulfilled Dow's financial responsibility for the disaster.

The Chairman and CEO of Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, had been arrested and released on bail by the Madhya Pradesh Police in Bhopal on December 7, 1984. This caused controversy as his trip to Bhopal was conditional on an initial promise by Indian authorities not to arrest him. Anderson has since refused to return to India. In 1987, the Indian government summoned Warren Anderson, eight other executives and two company affiliates with homicide charges to appear in Indian court. Union Carbide balked, saying the company is not under Indian jurisdiction. The CBI filed charge sheet against the accused in the criminal case before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Bhopal, only on 01 December 1987. The charge sheet also stated that further investigations were to be carried out in USA for which the CJM issued a Letter Rogatory dated 06 July 1988. The said letter of request was issued to enable the CBI to carry out a comparative study of the safety systems installed at the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal with that of its sister plant at Institute (West Virginia, USA) and to verify whether UCC had installed inferior safety-systems at its Bhopal plant. Although the U.S. Government formally permitted the CBI to conduct the said inspection of UCC’s pesticide plant at Institute on 14 February 1989, the entire process was pre-empted by the Settlement that took place in the Supreme Court of India on 14/15 February 1989.

The Government of India has also not taken adequate steps to execute the non-bailable warrant of arrest issued by the CJM, Bhopal, on 27.03.1992 to seek extradition of Warren Anderson, the former Chairman of UCC and accused No.1 in the criminal case, from the United States. The inaction on the part of the Union of India to facilitate the execution of the said non-bailable warrant of arrest against Warren Anderson again amounts to subversion of justice for the benefit of the said accused in the criminal case. In fact, the CBI, under directions from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), filed an application before the CJM, Bhopal, on 24 May 2002 for reducing criminal charges against Warren Anderson from Section 304 Part-II to Section 304-A of IPC, which practically amounted to withdrawal of the charge under which the said accused No.1 could be extradited to India. The prosecution agency, instead of attempting to force the said accused to stand trial, was intervening on behalf of the accused to enable the accused to escape trial. Due to sustained pressure exerted by the victims groups, the GOI forwarded the necessary request to the US Government on 05 May 2003 seeking the extradition of Warren Anderson to India to stand trial. However, a year later, on 20 July 2004, the CBI informed the CJM that the US Government had rejected India’s request on technical grounds. The CBI also assured the CJM that it would attempt to remove the technical hurdles but since then the CBI has made no further submission on the progress of the case. A seemingly apathetic attitude from the US government, which has failed to pursue the case, has also led to strong protests in the past, most notably by Greenpeace.

Environmentalists have warned that the waste is a potential minefield in the heart of the city, and the resulting contamination may lead to decades of slow poisoning, and diseases affecting the nervous system, liver and kidneys in humans. According to activists, there are studies showing that the rates of cancer and other ailments are high in the region. As per the recommendation of the Technical Sub-Committee of the Task Force for Removal of toxic Waste lying in Union Carbide, Bhopal, dated 26 August 2006, the entire toxic waste lying in and around the Union Carbide factory site at Bhopal was to be transported to USA for appropriate remediation. (The said Task Force was set up on 30 March 2005 under the auspices of the MP High Court in Writ Petition No. 2802 of 2004.) This recommendation was in consonance with the earlier decision of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, which on 23 March 2003 had directed Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) to transport 290 tons of contaminated mercury waste from HLL’s thermometer factory at Kodaikanal to USA for remediation based on the “polluter pays principle”. The State Government and the MP Pollution Control Board are trying their level best to sabotage the recommendations of the said Technical Sub-Committee. Lack of political willpower has led to a stalemate on the issue of cleaning up the plant and its environs of hundreds of tonnes of toxic waste, which has been left untouched. Carbide states that "after the incident, UCIL began clean-up work at the site under the direction of Indian central and state government authorities", which was continued after 1994 by the successor to UCIL, Eveready Industries, until 1998 when it completed it’s ended its 99-year lease and turned over control of the site to the state government of Madhya Pradesh. Currently, the Madhya Pradesh Government is trying to legally force Dow and EIIL to finance clean-up operations.

"I was the principal investigator for five projects, which were long-term projects and I looked after it for 6-7 years. One of this was the effect of the gas on the offspring of pregnant women. Initially there were a lot of abortions. The incidents of abortion were 24 per cent higher as compared to normal women, that is 49.39 per cent. My point is that these studies were done under my supervision for six years. And for all these studies we had large number of staff. Money was lavishly spent by ICMR. All the data was collected, we were analysing and preparing it. But when we asked the ICMR for permission to publication of data from time to time, they said 'no, you need not publish'. At no stage were we allowed to publish any data or give any lectures," said Nr Bhandari. The government also clearly dismisses the claim that exposure to the deadly Methyl Iso Cyanide (MIC) gas is a cause for congenital deformities, or for the high incidence of cancer. The government's own medical evidence works against the gas victims, it in fact helps the Union Carbide's claims. But what's harder to dismiss are the innumerable independent reports that show how dangerous the gas has been for its victims even 25 years later.

Very few initiatives have been taken by the State Government to rehabilitate the surviving gas-victims through appropriate avenues of employment, which are suited to their weakened constitution. Hundreds of widows of dead gas-victims are living in pitiable conditions as well. After paying a paltry sum as compensation, the Central and State Governments have washed their hands of the social responsibility towards the hapless gas-victims. It is estimated that 50,000 persons need alternative jobs, and that less than 100 gas victims have found regular employment under the government's scheme. 2,486 flats in two- and four-story buildings were constructed in the "Widows colony" outside Bhopal. The water did not reach the upper floors. It was not possible to keep cattle. Infrastructure like buses, schools, etc. was missing for at least a decade.

Noted Indian photojournalist Raghu Rai captured the image of an unknown child being buried in the aftermath and brought this grave issue to notice across the globe. Pablo Bartholomew was another noted photojournalist who captured this disaster into his lens. But photojournalism is yet to attain the respect and recognition in the country as it has globally. Until it can support an individual’s livelihood and not his passion, it will continue to be a path for the few who believe in telling stories through the camera lens to bring about change. It is ironical that at the speed with which Indian currency is inflating, it wouldn’t be wrong to state that the life of a common man is much cheaper than a tip to a bartender. Is mankind being oblivious to such catastrophes or is it in a hurry to complete the last leg of our evolution cycle and embrace its extinction. It reminds me of a verse from Quran:

We create and destroy
And again recreate
In forms of which no one knows

[AL-Waquiah Qu'ran 56:61]

To be very honest, for a long time I favored Bhagat Singh’s approach over the non-voilence weapon Mahatma Gandhi deployed. On patriotic occasions like Independence Day or Republic Day, I got to see a lot of people raising their opinion about the old leaders and the freedom struggle of our country. But within a day, the conversations would evaporate as though they never existed. While walking down a street on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I came across a small bookstore. Though I don’t get into a shop unless I have to buy something, a photography coffee table book kept in display caught my attention and I entered the shop to enquire about it. It turned out to be pretty expensive and it wasn’t feasible for me to spend that much money on it. As an alternative, I started cruising around the book racks and got tempted to buy at least 5 out of every 8 books I saw. In the corner of the store I saw a section containing books only on Mahatma Gandhi. I started going through them and decided to buy one which had a good content and was reasonably priced. It costed me merely 45 Rs under a promotional offer.

In the days to follow, I read the book and started verifying some information from the internet. I wouldn’t say it happened drastically, but my perception towards Mahatma Gandhi changed through a series of incidents. I saw few documentaries with special mention of the effect Gandhi’s ideals had on various I have seen people around who find it more intellectual to talk about Che Guevara rather than Mahatma Gandhi. We have always been inspired by the west. A wonderful film made by an Indian director on Mumbai slums in the early years of Hindi cinema dint win as much applause as did a recent one directed by a foreign director. Anyways, that is all together a different topic for discussion.

Gandhi Jayanti is celebrated in India on October 2^nd. As the day approached, the few most common things I could hear from people around me in regards to this day were: “It is a long weekend (Everyone was happy about this one)”, “It is a dry day (A trivial consideration for many people’s personal operations)”, “We hate Gandhi (we shall touch this point in soon)”, “Gandhi helped us win our freedom (Quite true to an extent)”.

In one of the status messages on a social networking website, one of my pals commented on how she felt Gandhi was given more importance than he actually deserved as compared to other freedom fighters like Sardar Patel and Bhagat Singh and hence she hated him irrespective of how others felt about it. I had observed that most of the people who came up with such extremist statements on freedom struggle thought they had lived through it all. But I seriously pity to see that this is the best way they utilize their right to freedom of speech in a democratic country and not a penny less, not a penny more. They were not even there to live through the struggle and yet have the audacity to comment as though they were directly affected by it.

Let’s analyze what these people were thinking before they came up such conclusions:

Why did Gandhi quit a 15k paying job (which was extremely high in those days) in South Africa for everything and come back to a country which was a slave to the British Empire? I guess he had a selfish motive behind it, he wanted to lead the freedom movement and had an extremely brilliant marketing strategy to hypnotize the entire nation to follow the freedom struggle movement under his leadership or maybe he was aiming at getting his image on the currency note of the free country.

Why did Gandhi not save Bhagat Singh from the death sentence even though they claim he could? Maybe Gandhi was fearful that if Bhagat Singh would have been alive, it would jeopardize his iconic image and would make Bhagat Singh the forefront leader of the freedom struggle or maybe Gandhi has brainwashed Bhagat Singh and forced him to stay back in the hall after throwing a bomb.

Gandhi was responsible for the partition!!! This is something no one can truly answer. As no one can substantiate that with or without the partition, people of the united or separated country would have lived happily ever after. I think they should consider the current state of Pakistan and the religious attacks in India. Is Gandhi responsible for it or it is the politicians today? Or is it us?

Gandhi doesn’t deserve such a status as compared to Sardar Patel and Bhagat Singh!!! Who gave him this status? We or he asked for it? The man took a bullet for all the good things he did for the nation and yet we hold him responsible for being more popular than other freedom fighters. It is us and the world that recognized his efforts and gave him this status.

Every individual has a perception of their own and being a democratic country they have the right to air their voice on any issue or topic. But they need to understand, that getting an entire nation like India under one leadership was not an easy task. Even though the struggle for independence was being run at different levels across the country, citizens got a sense of direction and unity under his name. I am sure that some decisions that Gandhi took must have been wrong, but he was just like another human being who became extra ordinary by his leadership and courage. It wouldn’t have been easy for his conscious to accept the consequences of his wrong decisions considering the fact that he was the same man in South Africa who sacrificed a good life to give the people of his motherland freedom. In today’s scenario, where most of us live a life we chose over our passions for the lack of courage to give up the comfort, try to think from the perspective of a man who did this for the hundreds of citizens who were just related to him by merely boundaries and nothing more.

Mahatma Gandhi inspired millions of people world over to take the path of non-violence and civil disobedience. Five world leaders who got Noble Peace prize viz. Martin Luther King Jr. (USA), Dalai Lama (Tibet), Aung San Suu Kyi (Myanmar), Nelson Mandela (S. Africa) and Adolfo Perez (Argentina) have acknowledged the fact that they were influenced by the philosophy of Gandhi. Yet, the man who inspired these Nobel Peace Prize winners, never got a Noble Prize!

Why don’t these people contemplate on our achievements after 50 years of independence? How have we contributed or taken the freedom to the next level? By being in ranks of fast developing countries, even when more than 75% of the country struggles for daily meals? By cribbing about the system and not having the courage to do anything on the individual level? By having the highest number of qualified technology resources in the world and yet being unable to develop a global technology product under our name? By still being confused if August 15^th is the Republic Day or Independence Day? By blaming Gandhi for partition and overlooking what the politicians did to Ayodhya, Gujarat, Kashmir, East Indian states and what Raj Thackrey is doing to Maharashtra?

By making personal contribution to the country or by just scrutinizing the people who had the courage to do it?

Not even a week after we celebrated our 62^nd year of Independence that a major controversy related to the 3rd Prime Minister of Independent India Lal Bahadur Shastri, has popped in.

Anuj Dhar, an Indian Author, Journalist and the founder trustee of non-profit trust based out of Delhi Mission Netaji. This trust conducts research on Indian freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose. He was the author of Back from Dead: Inside the Subhas Bose Mystery based on the mystery surrounding mysterious death of Bose. It is claimed that Subhash Chandra Bose, the supreme commander of Azad Hind Fauj and Free Indian Legion died in a plane crash in Taiwan on August 18^th, 2009. Anuj played a key role in securing trivial information from Taiwan Government which falsified the claim related to Bose’s death. The Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry which probed into the disappearance of Bose, corroborated this finding, but the Indian government rejected the findings of the commission. Since then, Dhar and his trust, Mission Netaji have been fighting to bring out the truth, utilising the Right to Information Act.

The Right to Information Act 2005 (Act No. 22/2005) is a law enacted by the Parliament of India giving citizens of India access to records of the Central Government and State Governments. The Act applies to all States and Union Territories of India, except the State of Jammu and Kashmir – which is covered under a State-level-law. Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen (including the citizens within J&K) may request information from a “public authority” (a body of Government or “instrumentality of State”) which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The Act is also requires every public authority to computerize their records for wide dissemination and to proactively publish certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum resource to request for information formally.

This law was passed by Parliament on 15^th June 2005 and came fully into force on 13^th October 2005. Information disclosure in India was hitherto restricted by the Official Secrets Act 1923 and various other special laws, which new RTI Act now relaxes.

Anuj Dhar also wrote a book entitled CIA's Eye on South Asia, which is an analysis of declassified CIA records on India and its neighbours. In this book, Dhar narrates what he terms as India's biggest spy scandal. The scandal entails the story of a CIA mole who operated out of Indira Gandhi’s Cabinet and how the mole wrecked India's plan to annihilate Pakistan in 1971. He is now using the RTI act to access classified Indian government information on the spy scandal.

As a part of his efforts, RTI applicant Anuj Dhar had requested the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) for making public the 'only' document pertaining to the mysterious death of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in Tashkent in 1966. Though CPIO rejected the application, it accepted that the PMO has one document on it but turned down the plea to make it public, citing the confidentiality clause under the Act. Dhar then filed an appeal with the First Appellate Authority in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) against the decision of the CPIO.

The following is the excerpt from the quotes published in Deccan Herald pertaining to this controversy: "I appreciate the point made by you in favour of transparency. However, on perusal of document in question and after giving the matter a careful consideration, I am satisfied that exemption sought under Section 8 (1)(a) has been invoked rightly," Vini Mahajan, Joint Secretary in PMO said while rejecting the appeal. Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act exempts the disclosure of information which can "prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence.”

After the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, Shastri had gone to Tashkent in erstwhile USSR in January 1966 for a summit meeting with then Pakistan President Ayub Khan. He died under mysterious circumstances, hours after signing the joint declaration, Dhar's petition said. Sunil Shastri, son of the former Prime Minister, has said, "When the body came here, the family was disturbed to see it. My mother demanded a postmorten but it was not done. After so many years, the government should come up with a proper clarification in the matter."

This is extremely weird, as USSR doesn’t exist anymore. It is completely disintegrated into smaller nations who are yet to overcome the aftermath of the major event. Lal Bahadur Shastri was a prominent and significant figure in the Indian Independence Movement and even after more than four decades of his death, the government is reluctant is sharing documents related to his mysterious death, as it might hamper international relations with a non-existent country and cause turmoil within the country?

The bright sun shining above my head,

The cool breeze blowing through my hair,

The smell of the damp mud arousing my senses,

Is just making me feel,

Oh what a wonderful day!

The wide road I walk on,

The lush green fields on either side,

The bright coloured flowers swinging with the wind,

Are making me feel,

Oh what a wonderful day!

The happiness flowing through my veins,

The smile on my face, refusing to step back,

The glitter in my eyes, sparkling bright,

Is just making me feel,

Oh what a wonderful day!

I refuse to succumb to downbeat thoughts,

I refuse to take diminutive steps,

I refuse to close my eyes to the light,

Cuz I know, how I feel,

Oh what a wonderful day!

Before I could stretch my smile wider,

Before I could wish for the moment to never end,

Before I could take a giant leap, I tumble over on the ground,

And fall flat on my face,

Oh what a wonderful day!

I open my eyes to darkness, the light and magnificence all gone,

A rug soaked in dirt, a bitter smell suffocating my lungs,

I squeak my eyes to glare deeper into infinity,

I wish this aint reality, I wish for my magic wand,

Is this a wonderful day?

I rise on my feet, to move in random directions,

To look for a helping hand, to look for my own shadow,

Only to tumble again, only to add to my bruises,

I feel my wounds and begin to contemplate,

Is this still a wonderful day?

My soul is shaken, and my knees broken,

But the fading hope inside me is the reason am still moving,

Rip my flesh, break my bones,

But you cant rip the strong spirit inborn,

I pull myself up, and push harder harder,

For I know there is a light towards the end of the tunnel,

For I know, what I see with my eyes closed,

Aint just dreams,

For I still believe, that I have the power,

To still make this,

A wonderful day!