THIS Constitution Day, how do we reflect on the world’s worst industrial disaster in Union Carbide, Bhopal as we approach the 40th anniversary of this carnage? It is a tragedy every Indian is familiar with, but over the years it has been reduced to a footnote in public memory, ruefully remembered by most people just once a year when the anniversary approaches.
In the meantime, untold suffering, trauma and harm people were subjected to continue to haunt them and future generations bear the harsh impact in the form of disabilities, mutagenic disorders, reproductive wrongs, cancer and mental health issues even four decades after the tragedy.
Successive governments have not created any substantial policy changes to address, prevent or prepare for such disasters in the future, and there is still no law on corporate accountability in case of such accidents. With the new buzz around ‘ease of doing business’, accountability has been eroded further.
The same industries continue to be encouraged and there is no promise of non-repetition. In these four decades, we have witnessed malicious attempts by Union Carbide and the State to deny culpability by deliberately misconstruing the harm, passing the buck and squabbling over the number of dead and the affected.
