Bhopal: A Gas Tragedy

I was confused then and I am worried now. And still it has got nothing to do with Terrorism, Maoists or Himesh Reshamiya. Being a kid when the damn thing happened, I had little or no idea on this whole gas issue. Or should I say I had an overtly embarrassing confusion on the very word called Gas. I still remember when our small classroom filled with more than required number of pupils thrown into some unbearable smell of last night Paratha and Dahi Wada, our class teacher did pointed at the culprit with her ever so shrinking nose and advised him to maintain some civic sense and refrain himself from producing unwanted gas in public places. So when it come to catastrophe of some uncontrolled gas leak my knowledge was limited to the Dahi Wada aspect of it and not beyond. So when this gas did manage to kill some 20000 odd people it took me by surprise, as I never had an idea that a gas other than make you vomit does have some killer instincts too.

Now the worry for me after 26 years of the said gas leak is the way we handled it. When I say we, it constitutes of all citizens, our then able government and the governments to follow, our judiciary, Arjun Sing with that cap, the peon at the investigation agency, et all. If this farce of 26 years is to be termed as an effort to give justice to all those who suffered, then let me assure you, it failed more miserably and quickly than Jugal Hansraj's bollywood career. I would say my class teacher handled the gas leak situation better and made sure the culprit beg an apology for his unwanted behaviour and advised all others not to repeat this mistake of our friend ever. But in case of Bhopal leak we as a country failed decisively on all aspects - starting from rehabilitating the sufferers to bringing the culprits to book.

We never value the lives of our countrymen is a well known fact, but never been displayed so openly before Bhopal. The Anderson chap, who was touted to be the culprit in chief was very ceremoniously being taken out of the country by government charted flight was nothing less than some Priyadarsan's comedy movie. Now when asked what made the government took so much of pain in transporting perhaps the biggest offender of Indian law, we hear some idiotic version of law and order going haywire if he remained stationed in Bhopal. If even this argument is taken on face value, it still baffles me and million others on why this chap was allowed to fly out almost giving him a state honour? He could have easily been dumped in some jail in Delhi, if not Tihar and the law should have been allowed to take it from there.

The sharp contrast of British Petroleum paying 20 billion to USA for killing few Turtles and Octopuses in Gulf Of Mexico to the $450 compensation for each dead corpus in Bhopal is nothing short of projecting ourselves as a bunch of jokers. If this comedy was not enough the apprehended smaller fishes were handed a paltry 2 years jail term and bailed out in 58 minutes is rubbing salt in the wounds. 2 years jail term for 20000 deaths? doesn't it look like something gone horribly wrong somewhere? Looking at these statistics I don't think we have any authority to hang Afzal Guru or Qasav, if we judge all these cases on the same yard stick. Well Hang on - I don't think these two jokers would ever be hanged though.

Now what we achieved after 26 years? A sour mouth and red ass, 450 dollars each which I guess average outgoing US spoiled brat might be spending in strip clubs over the weekend, a new avatar of Arjun Sing plus the white cap, Manish Tiwari becoming a definition of idiocy and as usual Bharat Ratna Rajeev Gandhi (then Prime Minister) projected as the sole person in the face of the planet who seriously wanted justice be delivered to the gas victims. So many achievements, I must say.

Thanks to the media, the case was revisited by the present government and some useless committee did finally advised the prime minister on how the whole thing has gone wrong. But justice seems to be far from being delivered. The Anderson fellow is enjoying his golf and National Football League and cheering for Chicago Bears, while we as a nation are deep in blame game and some funny looking jingoism. None seems to stand accountable. Arjun Sing (Minus the white cap) washed off his hands by pointing the blame to the dead Narashima Rao, who in turn might be pointing to Rajeev Gandhi somewhere up in the heaven and we lesser mortals are searching for credible answers down below on planet earth.

National disgust is a milder word. I always thought for 2010 the biggest national shame would be the commonwealth games, but was proven wrong as the biggest shame for this financial year came at least 4 months early. I as well as all know, nothing going to come out of this in future. We are licking our Bhopal wounds and would continue to do so. Only prayer is that no more national shame be brought in prior to the last national shame for this year - The commonwealth games. Till then move on and plan your next holiday somewhere in Andaman & Nicobar. Good Night!