People's Democracy

BHOPAL TRAGEDY

CPI(M), CPI to Hold Demos across MP

THE Madhya Pradesh state units of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India are now jointly staging fortnight long demonstrations across the state against the recent court verdict on Bhopal gas tragedy.

This is in accordance with the announcement the CPI(M) state secretary Badal Saroj had made at a press conference at Bhopal on June 13, 2010. he had said that the Left had made six demands on the issue of the verdict and a memorandum was to be sent to the president of India. He said the US president Barak Obama must, in mind the action taken in the case of Mexico Gulf case, renegotiate the compensation paid to the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy.

Appreciating the role of media in the Bhopal gas tragedy case and the court verdict follow-up, Saroj said mere debating on the issue won’t help; instead, concrete actions against the persons concerned, whether from politics, bureaucracy or judiciary, should be taken. “Whether it is the then chief minister Arjun singh or collector Moti Singh, SP Swaraj Puri or Justice Admadi, all should be taken to task,” he asserted. He said the Supreme Court must suo moto form a high-power bench for time-bound hearing regarding the case.

Both the CPI(M) and CPI have also condemned the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s foreign tour along with his family members and officials on the pretext of investment scouting. Saroj also questioned the utility of such foreign trips.

The two parties have raised the following six demands regarding the Bhopal tragedy:

1) The Supreme Court must rescind its earlier decision that diluted the intensity of the crime and must immediately constitute a judicial machinery to conduct continuous hearing to bring to book the culprits.

2) The government must bring the main accused, Warren Anderson, to India and launch a criminal case against him.   

3) It must initiate a criminal case against the politicians, bureaucrats and judicial authorities, , whose involvement has been reported, for protecting the accused, tampering with the evidences and misusing their official position.

4) It must obtain compensation afresh for the gas victims on the line of compensation decided in the case of oil leakage from British Petroleum company.

5) The BJP as well as the Congress must tender an apology to the people of Bhopal and the country for their shameless behaviour in the tragedy so far.

6) The government must remove Justice A M Ahmadi from the position of life-time president of Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Centre for his role in diluting the sections of the law-suit and for imposing a nominal amount as compensation to the gas tragedy victims.

Along with the issues related to the Bhopal tragedy, the CPI(M)-CPI campaign is also highlighting the clauses and the implications of the proposed Nuclear Liability Bill. During the campaign, a big public meeting is scheduled to be organised at Bhopal, which CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat would address.