More On Bhopal

I Mallikarjuna Sharma adds

This writer went to Bhopal at least two times, once along with late Sri K G Kannabiran, Senior Advocate (for long years President of PUCL, India), in connection with the Bhopal tragedy . For one thing I have not much sympathy towards the so-called 'victims' who seem to exceed 6 lakhs or so as per the claims made! At that time I have written articles in which I cited the death figure as about or not less than 20,000 but several criticisms I had to face that the figure was on higher side because government and other organisations figure was about 4000-8000 and not more. Of course, all our estimates were approximate. [Now in the website of International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal it is stated: "The official death toll to-date (local government figures) of people who have died as a result of the disaster stands at more than 20,000 people..."

However, it is despicable that those who are not even affected by the tragedy in any way filed claim petitionsc—this is the Indian standards—what we can say?

Of course, if the same accident were to have happened in America, the compensation sanctioned by courts there would have been many times more than our figures but US and India—quite different situations, no?

I also think our government should have officially filed a compensation suit in American courts and in the International Court of Justice too [if the American government was not cooperative] in this regard, together with necessary diplomatic activity, and that would have delivered better results. At least, the company would have come up for a better compromise and better package.

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Vol 55, No. 40, April 2 - 8, 2023