Bhopal gas disaster - WikiLeaks expose US role

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The UCIL factory, Bhopal

It is almost a month since very vital disclosures were made by WikiLeaks in respect of the Bhopal Gas Disaster but, surprisingly, the media did not find it of any importance. The disclosures were literally blacked out.  People wouldn’t have known about them but for the initiatives of the NGOs working for the welfare of the victims of the gas leak. They fished them out from the mass of disclosures and organized a joint protest rally in Bhopal.

The disclosures known as the “Kissinger cables” make the US Administration ethically and morally, if not legally, responsible for the Bhopal Gas Disaster that took thousands of lives, sickened and maimed many more. If one looks at the larger picture of the Bhopal tragedy one would find officials of the US Administration including those in its Indian embassy and some Indian collaborators working against all ethical or moral and legal norms from the beginning to end for the benefit of a big corporation. The entire script, however, was prepared and choreographed by the US.

Let us start at the beginning. A proposal was submitted to the Government of India by the Union Carbide India Ltd. (UCIL) in 1966 for “erection of facilities for the manufacture of up to 5000 tonnes of Sevin Carbaryl insecticide”. Except issuing a letter-of-intent, nothing much was done on the proposal at the government level for around three years.  The UCIL took up the matter with the government again in 1970 indicating, inter alia, that in the intervening period the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) had devised a new technology in manufacture of Sevin using Methyl Isocyanides (MIC) that had brought down cost of the product by half.

With the apparent inactivity in the government in regard to the matter the US Administration got into the act, reportedly, taking a cue from (one) Kaul, presumably TN Kaul, the then Indian Ambassador to the US, who was keen to push the industrial development of India. The WikiLeaks disclosures reveal that in the 1970s the US government had pushed hard the case for UCC to set up its operations in India. It meticulously followed the UCC's case with the Government of India seeking exceptional terms to help the company set up a factory in Bhopal.

The disclosures also show that in 1973 the company decided to install the unproven MIC technology in the Bhopal plant, at the same time deciding not to abide by the then existing Foreign Exchange Regulations Act (FERA) of limiting foreign equity participation to less than 50%. During the same year, it seems, the head of the UCIL had approached the US Ambassador, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, to ask the visiting US Deputy Secretary of State to lobby on behalf of the company with the Indian finance minister. A series of cables reveal that the UCIL managers were in constant touch with the US embassy officials in order to secure favourable terms for the UCC’s investments in India.

In 1975 the US Embassy asked the State Department to help the UCIL secure a loan from the US Export Import Bank. The official intervention paid off by the end of the year as the UCIL obtained a loan from the Bank in contravention of the extant FERA regulations. The disclosures indicate that later in September 1975 the US lobbying paid off even in the UCIL getting a license for manufacturing 5000 tonnes of MIC-based pesticides. The official US lobbying, thus, not only got a loan for the UCIL much against the FERA regulations (the provisions of which were apparently diluted under US pressure), it also facilitated establishment of the proposed plant at Bhopal with a technology that was yet unproven with all too evident disastrous and tragic consequences.

Having leaned on the Indian Government of India to ensure a “footprint” for the UCC in the substantial Indian market the US Administration continued to render assistance to it even after the MIC gas leak and the consequential disaster. It is now well-known how UCC Chairman, Warren Anderson, who came to India after the disaster, was granted bail soon after his arrest in December 1984 and was put on a plane for Delhi by senior district officials of Bhopal and then allowed to sneak away back to the US. The promptitude and the alacrity with which his escape from India was arranged smacked of enormously huge pressure on the Indian government.

Later, even at the time of settling the compensation for the victims of the disaster the US Administration was reported to have pressurized the Indian government to accept a far lesser amount of only $470 million than the $3 billion that it had claimed. The UCC lawyers reportedly went to the Supreme Court from the residence of the Prime Minister for the settlement that was arrived at in camera in the Chief Justice’s chamber. Even much later in 2007, the US Ambassador pressed the Government of India to drop its claims against Dow Chemicals, the new owners of the UCC. The US even threatened to link investments in India to the country’s stand on Dow Chemicals. After all, The Dow is one of the largest corporations in the US and such entities are the movers and shakers of its Administration which literally eats out of their hands.

For pushing an unproven UCC technology in a developing country and then bailing out its progenitor from its responsibilities for the massive disaster (caused due to its own acts of omissions and commissions) makes the US Administration as much culpable as the UCC and the UCIL. The then Indian government displayed just no spine for standing up to the US even for the sake of its own huge number of suffering people. Looks like there were massive pay-offs. Moynihan, the then US Ambassador, later went on record saying that the Congress party took money from the US. A senior lawyer and MP, Ram Jethmalani’s allegation in 2010 that Congress got paid by the UCC has not been denied so far. One cannot really put it past the Congress, the party that was in power through the 1980s both in Delhi and in Bhopal, as it has had a record of receiving funds from abroad.

What, however comes out in bold relief is the double standard of the so-called Big Power. While its heart bleeds for the violations of human rights of Sri Lankan Tamils prompting it to move a resolution in the UN Human Rights Council against Sri Lanka for their alleged wanton killing in war against LTTE, its heart, however, did not even miss a beat for death and lifelong injuries to hundreds of thousands of innocents by sheer negligence and apathy of its much-valued UCC. By the admissions in a cable of its own embassy as many as 15000 died and 500,000 were critically injured because of the gas-leak.

The US has always been like that – preachy only for others, not for its own people, especially its Corporations.

          

"Cash for votes" - sensational WikiLeak disclosures

That voters in India are routinely bribed in cash or kind is a well-known phenomenon. In Tamilnadu according to WikiLeaks, it is commonplace, as indeed it is elsewhere in the country. Indians are also familiar with what is generally known as “horse trading” that involves in huge amounts of cash changing hands when, post-elections, political parties engage in government formation to find that majority in the “house” that elude them at the hustings. Likewise, Indians have been taking bribing of legislators for voting for a minority government in the state or national legislatures during trust-votes, by and large, in their stride.

Nevertheless, the expose’ by the highly respected newspaper “The Hindu” of the “cash for votes” cables sent from the US Embassy and procured from WikiLeaks, seemingly, set the cat among the pigeons. The cables talked of millions of rupees being paid to a certain political party at the time of the 2008 no-confidence motion moved against the Manmohan Singh government that lost its majority in the Lower House on withdrawal of support by the Left parties over the Indo-US Nuclear Deal.

The July 22 2008 no-confidence motion moved against United Progressive Alliance government by the Opposition was followed by tremendous amount of theatrics. Three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs came rushing into the Lok Sabha, the Lower House, waving bundles of currency notes in front of the Speaker, alleging attempts by Samajwadi Party (SP), then a supporter of the government, to bribe them with a crore (ten million) of rupees each for voting for the government. The name of Amar Singh, then of the SP and a well-known political wheeler-dealer, was mentioned in this connection. The expose’ was result of a sting operation by CNN-IBN news channel, masterminded by one Sudhindra Kulkarni, a BJP ideologue.

The money was seized by the Speaker and, later, a committee of Lok Sabha was constituted to probe into the matter. Failing to arrive at a definite conclusion even though video tapes and other documents relating records of phone calls etc. were submitted to it by the news channel and the BJP, respectively, the Committee exonerated Amar Singh but labelled his aide, one Sanjeev Saxena, as a bribe-giver who was caught on camera bribing a BJP MP. Unable to probe further for reasons of rules and procedures, the Committee suggested further investigations into the matter. However, neither the matter was probed further nor the case registered at the instance of the Speaker with the local police pursued. The Manmohan Singh government survived the motion with the help of a few abstentions and support of a few BJP MPs who defied the party’s whip.

In the context of what happened in the Parliament in July 2008, contents of the leaked cable are perfectly credible. It is quite likely that as a measure of abundant caution the Congress Party attempted to muster as many votes as possible in favour of the government. After all, the Prime Minister was deeply committed to the Indo-US Nuclear Deal and the government (and his party) had to take all possible measures to ensure its survival to push it through. Apart from using Amar Singh to bribe some BJP MPs, the Congress, apparently, pitched on the MPs of Rashtriya Lok Dal, a regional political outfit of Uttar Pradesh (UP), more open to the lure of money. Headed by one Ajit Singh, a man of dubious reputation, the party has frequently figured in reports of its involvement in lending support for monetary considerations to shaky governments. Apparently, the US Embassy contact was told that the MPs of RLD had been paid a billion rupees each. Their reputation is such that even the Congressman, Nachiketa Kapur, who organised the payment, was not sure whether they would vote in favour of the government even after having been bribed. He, however, boasted that there was enough kept away in chests for further pay-offs, if necessary.

Yet another factor that makes the cable credible is the mention of Capt. Satish Sharma, an MP in Rajya Sabha, the Upper House, who also was met with by the US Embassy contact. Looks like, Capt. Sharma and Kapur were jointly in charge of the operation of bribing the RLD MPs. Once a close friend of the Late Rajiv Gandhi, he is now a close associate of Sonia Gandhi, widow of Rajiv Gandhi and the current Congress President. With a chequered political career and several brushes with the law, he, seemingly, has been involved in the dirty work of the Congress. He was also involved in 1993 in bribing the MPs of another regional political outfit, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), to save the minority Congress government of the Late Narsimha Rao in a trust-vote moved by the BJP. The investigations had revealed that various industrialists had paid Rs 13 crore (130 million) to Capt Satish Sharma, who arranged payments to the JMM MPs out of this amount. Narsimha Rao’s government did survive the trust vote.

Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, brazened out the WikiLeaks disclosures by an outright denial of the allegations of bribery and rejected the charge of the Opposition, which he said was based on “speculative, unverified and unverifiable'' communication, and told Parliament that none from the government or the Congress indulged in any unlawful act during that time. He went on to say that the government “cannot confirm the veracity, contents or even the existence of such communication.” At the then ongoing India Today Conclave he had said, “I have no knowledge of any such purchases and I am absolutely categorical, I have not authorised anyone to purchase any votes. I am not aware of any acts of purchase of votes…I am absolutely certain in asserting that I am not at all, I think, involved in any of these transactions”.

Nobody is buying what Dr. Singh has been saying in denial. Not only there was enough evidence gathered earlier, the US officials have since certified the accuracy and credibility of the cables now released by WikiLeaks. Julian Assange, Editor in-Chief of WikiLeaks, branded Dr. Singh’ statements of denial as “misleading”, a charge that is serious when made against a prime minister. Generally known for his clean image, Indian people are aghast at the way the Prime Minister, with his distinguished academic and bureaucratic background, staked his reputation and all that he had for winning a trust-vote to see a mere deal through. At a recent interview with the editors of Indian TV news channels he had said, that after his academic and bureaucratic stints, politics was a fresh field that was providing him a new learning experience. Apparently, he has been very quick in picking up the tricks of his current trade.

Apart from the image of Dr. Singh, the image of Congress has taken a severe beating. The grand old party, now more than a century and a quarter old, has, somewhere down in the post-independence years, lost its moral fibre and has acquired an insatiable lust for power. This very lust may see the end of it. Mahatma Gandhi happened to say in 1948 “...in the ungainly skirmish for power, it (Congress) will find one fine morning that it is no more.” That may well happen with the contemptible riff-raff that it now constitutes of, unless the party immediately sets about correcting its course.