Over 100 come together to protest Bhopal verdict

NEW DELHI - Over 100 activists came together in the national capital Saturday for a peaceful protest to mark their solidarity with the victims and survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy, who they feel have been cheated of justice.

Calling the June 7 verdict in the case as the cheapest negotiation by the government for its own people, Uma Chakravarti, a historian from Delhi University, told IANS: “Profits and corporate capital is all that our government is looking at. Our own government has done the cheapest negotiation for its people. The government after this verdict was exposed.”

A Bhopla court Monday sentenced seven former officials of Union Carbide India Limited to two years in jail for criminal negligence. The gas tragedy December 2-3, 1984 killed thousands instantly and is widely regarded as the world’s biggest industrial disaster.

From activists, professors, journalists, social workers to students, people from all walks of life came together Saturday to protest the quantum of sentence.

Some of the placards read — “Three idiots of Bhopal - Judiciary, Politicians and Industrial Leaders”, “World’s largest democracy where economic growth takes place over lives of innocent people”.

“Protests from people helped in getting justice in the Jessica Lal murder case. We hope to see such participation here,” said Kabir Arora, one of the organizers who works with an NGO.

The activists recited poetry and sang songs about hope and justice. A skit was also enacted on the various incidents which led to the verdict.

“The skit has various pillars on which our country stands. Court, government, corporates who denied the right to justice to many. Most of us don’t know but there were two incidents of leakages from the same plant before this. The first incident killed five people while the second incident killed atleast 25 people,” said Nivedita Das, one of the protesters.

The protestors demanded that Prime minister Manmohan Singh take immediate action against Warren Anderson, the former chairman of Union Carbide Corporation.

“We want the government to bring the culprits to India and try them again, two years back PM promised compensation for rehabilitation and medical treatment but its very less. Dow chemicals should be blacklisted here,” said Satinatu Sarangi, an activist from Bhopal.