Of Govt & societal apathy
This has been a comparatively uneventful year, if you were to discount the swearing in of America’s first Black President and China’s hyper activity in verbal declarations of territory.
But it was a year when two path-turning events completed 25 years and without any succour to their victims — the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
Both events took lives — horribly and due to negligence. More than a generation has come up after 4,000 Sikhs were mostly burnt to death by a rampaging mob trying to avenge Indira Gandhi’s assassination. A recall showed how many families were destroyed and how many orphans are growing up in crime and punishment, as a result of this unholy riot.
Not much relief has come their way, though as the Congress was forced to deny a ticket to alleged leaders of this riot, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, both of whom have been sureshot seat winners in Delhi’s Assembly elections.
Other than this, the Congress has done precious little to help the affected families, most of whom are living in penury, having lost either all male members or lone breadwinners, not to mention the psychological scars that will go only with death. This, when a Sikh Prime Minister is in the chair, and an honest intentioned one at that!
After 25 years, the situation is far from tense and totally under control as far as the Government is concerned. The riot-hit families are lost in public memory and pop up merely at anniversaries or when a disgusted Sikh throws a shoe at a dignitary. But not many uncomfortable questions are asked of an apathetic Government. After all, Indian lives are globally known to be cheap, so unnatural deaths of the violent variety just need time to be laid to rest.
Talking of the cheapness of the life of an Indian national, no one would have benefitted from it more than the Union Carbide bosses back in America. It has been 25 years to 25,000 lives being lost over the years due to the infamous MIC gas leak from the Union Carbide factory at Bhopal, but there has been too little succour for the victims.
Even after so many years if you recall how the Union Carbide boss Warren Anderson was treated by our Government you will shrink in disgust. Just to tell you again, Anderson flew into Bhopal from New York via Delhi and was met at the airport by a large contingent of officials, both law enforcers and the district administration. A warm handshakes later, he was led away in a cordon of cars and was told only later that he was under arrest.
So far so good. You could applaud the officers who acted with alacrity. But then came the directives of the Central Government, which clearly acted under American pressure to engineer the instant release of the man on a bail bond of merely Rs 25,000 — a figure that eerily matched the final count of deaths in the tragedy. Not just that, an angry Anderson was pacified (he did not spend a single day in jail) and escorted out of India with the props accorded to State guests.
Such is India. Had the gas leaked in US, UCIL would have paid, not in millions but in billions, not in rupees but in dollars. But back home, a billion plus count somehow paves the way for cheap deaths. Ask the doctor who performed the 3,000 autopsies in the first few days of the leak; ask the Bhopal municipality truckers who transported batches of 750 each of bodies to the cremation grounds all through the night; ask the priest at the crematorium who did mass funerals for days; ask the grandfather who dies a thousand deaths seeing crippled grandchildren trying to live a life 25 years later. You may then get ashamed of being so silent a public that a tag of impotence would seem a natural corollary.
With time, demands pass. Only incidents change, not the inertia in bringing the guilty to book. Today, we have other people to punish, other issues to solve, 26/11 being just one case in point.
But it was a year when two path-turning events completed 25 years and without any succour to their victims — the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
Both events took lives — horribly and due to negligence. More than a generation has come up after 4,000 Sikhs were mostly burnt to death by a rampaging mob trying to avenge Indira Gandhi’s assassination. A recall showed how many families were destroyed and how many orphans are growing up in crime and punishment, as a result of this unholy riot.
Not much relief has come their way, though as the Congress was forced to deny a ticket to alleged leaders of this riot, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, both of whom have been sureshot seat winners in Delhi’s Assembly elections.
Other than this, the Congress has done precious little to help the affected families, most of whom are living in penury, having lost either all male members or lone breadwinners, not to mention the psychological scars that will go only with death. This, when a Sikh Prime Minister is in the chair, and an honest intentioned one at that!
After 25 years, the situation is far from tense and totally under control as far as the Government is concerned. The riot-hit families are lost in public memory and pop up merely at anniversaries or when a disgusted Sikh throws a shoe at a dignitary. But not many uncomfortable questions are asked of an apathetic Government. After all, Indian lives are globally known to be cheap, so unnatural deaths of the violent variety just need time to be laid to rest.
Talking of the cheapness of the life of an Indian national, no one would have benefitted from it more than the Union Carbide bosses back in America. It has been 25 years to 25,000 lives being lost over the years due to the infamous MIC gas leak from the Union Carbide factory at Bhopal, but there has been too little succour for the victims.
Even after so many years if you recall how the Union Carbide boss Warren Anderson was treated by our Government you will shrink in disgust. Just to tell you again, Anderson flew into Bhopal from New York via Delhi and was met at the airport by a large contingent of officials, both law enforcers and the district administration. A warm handshakes later, he was led away in a cordon of cars and was told only later that he was under arrest.
So far so good. You could applaud the officers who acted with alacrity. But then came the directives of the Central Government, which clearly acted under American pressure to engineer the instant release of the man on a bail bond of merely Rs 25,000 — a figure that eerily matched the final count of deaths in the tragedy. Not just that, an angry Anderson was pacified (he did not spend a single day in jail) and escorted out of India with the props accorded to State guests.
Such is India. Had the gas leaked in US, UCIL would have paid, not in millions but in billions, not in rupees but in dollars. But back home, a billion plus count somehow paves the way for cheap deaths. Ask the doctor who performed the 3,000 autopsies in the first few days of the leak; ask the Bhopal municipality truckers who transported batches of 750 each of bodies to the cremation grounds all through the night; ask the priest at the crematorium who did mass funerals for days; ask the grandfather who dies a thousand deaths seeing crippled grandchildren trying to live a life 25 years later. You may then get ashamed of being so silent a public that a tag of impotence would seem a natural corollary.
With time, demands pass. Only incidents change, not the inertia in bringing the guilty to book. Today, we have other people to punish, other issues to solve, 26/11 being just one case in point.
Published December 6, 200, Sunday Pioneer , http://www.dailypioneer.com/220609/Of-Govt--societal-apathy.html
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