Bhopal’s long night of horror shows no signs of ending

Bhopal gas tragedy A network of pipes rust at the abandoned former Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal November 14, 2014(Image Reuters)

Thirty-six years after methyl isocyanate (MIC), the highly-toxic chemical used to make pesticides, leaked from the Union Carbide plant in the city of Bhopal spreading death and suffering, the victims still can’t get closure, that most basic of human rights.

Instead, they have been hit hard by the pandemic — 75 percent of the city’s COVID-19 deaths have been that of Bhopal gas victims and those exposed to MIC. The various curative petitions that have been filed on their behalf in the Supreme Court over 10 years ago, are still pending. Slowly, the dead have been reduced to a mere statistic, their claim to fame being a part of the world’s worst industrial disaster. Even in this they haven’t been given the dignity of an accurate number. Estimates, even among the various government agencies differ, ranging from 5,000 to 25,000.

What is irrefutable is that thousands died immediately after the leak or in the days that followed. Many more have continued to suffer from cancer, blindness, respiratory difficulties, immune and neurological disorders, and female reproductive disorders.

In 1994, an International Medical Commission set up to assess the respiratory, neurological and other health effects attributable to gas exposure concluded that a large number of subjects reported general health problems and episodes of fever; adverse outcome of pregnancy and respiratory symptoms. In addition, neurological and psychiatric symptoms were reported more frequently. Ophthalmic symptoms demonstrated a similar pattern.

Yet, over three decades later, no one, it seems, is guilty of perpetrating this terrible crime. It is important to recognise that Bhopal’s tragedy isn’t just about the sheer injustice meted out to the survivors. It is also about the lack of an institutional framework for global corporations to be held responsible for such crimes. It is about assigning responsibility with adequate punishment to serve as a deterrence for other companies in the future.

The Union Carbide Corporation Ltd. (UCC), the company in question, and Dow Chemicals which acquired it in 2001, are both named in the pending cases. Activists say company officials from the US company rarely show up in court despite the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in Criminal Matters between the United States and India expressly providing for company officials to be summoned for testimony in such cases.

The UCC’s defence right from the beginning of the incident rested on its claim that it owned only 50.7 percent stake in Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), the Indian entity that owned the Bhopal plant, while the rest was owned by the Indian public and domestic institutional investors. It claimed, therefore, that it did not control daily operations of the plant and, hence, was not legally liable for the disaster.

Strangely, a few years earlier when it was setting up the plant, the UCC was firm on retaining control of both the project and the technologies being used. The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of the time did not allow foreign corporations to hold majority stake in a project but at its insistence an exception was made for the UCC on the grounds that it was bringing in ‘special technology’. In fact, two years before the tragedy unfolded, a team from Union Carbide’s headquarters in Danbury, Connecticut, had discovered several major issues related to safety and maintenance at the Bhopal plant. These were blatantly ignored, with disastrous consequences.

What’s more, a conspiracy theory was floated around this time with claims of a disgruntled employee having sabotaged the plant. Dutifully, the consulting firm Arthur D Little was hired to investigate the matter and to no one’s surprise in 1988 the firm accepted the company’s version that sabotage and not negligence had led to the gas leak. While the company’s lawyers said at the time that the name of the saboteur would be revealed soon, the theory never gained much credence and the said suspect wasn’t ever named.

It was the usual game of obfuscation that companies with skeletons in their cupboards resort to. There have been rare exceptions as in 2005 when a series of explosions occurred at BP's Texas City refinery, leading to the death of 15 people. BP admitted to the charges and accepted the fines imposed on it. What’s more, Bob Malone, the then chairman of its US operations frankly accepted "If our approach to process safety and risk management had been more disciplined and comprehensive, this tragedy could have been prevented".

Three years after the gas leak I was in Bhopal for a few weeks. The town was back to its bustling self. The mango shake was terrific and in the bazaars the paya soup stalls did brisk business. But on the odd occasion I passed by areas like Chola Road I could still feel the sharp pungent odour of MIC in the air. Guilt is like that. You just have to let your guard down for a fraction of a second and it sneaks in to haunt you. Companies, luckily for them, have no such problems.