Bhopal verdict: Unravels cruel despotic corrupt face of moribund capitalism

The recent Bhopal verdict that virtually let off the guilty and reduced the worst ‘industrial disaster’ ever, to the equivalent of a mere street accident – a deadly gas leak that killed over 20,000 people and afflicted more than half a million people — has deeply shocked the people throughout the country and created a storm of indignation. The verdict has made a mockery of justice, a mockery of the sufferings of gas victims, maimed, disabled and diseased. After a long wait for the gas victims, after a delay of 26 years, the Bhopal judgement has pronounced UCIL chairman Keshub Mahindra and six other officials guilty and sentenced them to two years in jail with a fine of 1 lakh each. The guilty have immediately been released on a bail of Rs. 25,000. It is sure they will appeal against the sentence and ultimately pay neither the fine nor serve the prison sentence. None of the far more guilty personnel of the parent UCC were sentenced.

Disaster strikes in Bhopal

The name Bhopal has come to stand worldwide for an industrial disaster – an unspeakable tragedy for people – its horrific memory etched in the survivor’s mind. It is well-known that on the fateful night of December 2, 1984, when the gas leak happened, the people of Bhopal were caught unaware in their sleep. The factory’s sirens had been turned off. There was no one to warn them, no one to give advice, no semblance of an administration. In that night of horror people did not know what had happened when an exploding tank of over 40 tonnes of MIC (methyl isocyanide) in the Union Carbide pesticide’s factory, located in a densely populated area, sent a cocktail of poisonous gases gushing into the air that silently spread into their homes. People did not know what to do as the dense cloud of poison gases was burning the tissues of their eyes and lungs, and attacking their nervous systems. Writhing in pain from its searing and suffocating effect they tried to escape, to run to safety, anywhere, following others, amidst total chaos. Some vomited uncontrollably, went into convulsions and fell dead. Others choked to death. Many died a horrible death. When dawn broke over the city, thousands of human bodies and animal carcasses lay in heaps in the streets. How many died, no one knows. Union Carbide talked of 3,800. Municipal workers, who picked up bodies with their own hands, loading them onto trucks for burial in mass graves or to be burned on mass pyres, estimated that they shifted at least 15,000 bodies. More than half a million people have been exposed to the gases. They are still suffering from the deadly after-effects, some blind, others half-blind, disabled and diseased, their offsprings maimed and diseased. Many succumbed years later, and still do, from multiple organ failure and cancer. According to Rashida Bai, who survived the gas but lost five family members to cancers, those who escaped with their lives “are the unlucky ones; the lucky ones are those who died on that night.”

Union Carbide plant at Bhopal was accident prone

But this disaster was not an accident that came, so to say, like a bolt from the blue. It came as the culmination of a series of minor accidents, for the Bhopal factory had a long history of safety violations. On December 26, 1981 one worker at the Union Carbide India Ltd. (UCIL) plant in Bhopal — a subsidiary of the US multinational Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) — died due to a phosgene spill, and two were seriously injured. A fortnight later 25 workers were hospitalized from another phosgene leak. Again in October 1982, there was a leak of MIC gas, which badly affected people residing nearby, many of whom had to be hospitalized. Wherever any industrial factory is engaged in the hazardous production of poisonous and toxic materials there must be adequate safety measures and monitoring system to arrest any possible accidental disaster. But conditions that prevailed at the Union Carbide plant are simply beyond imagination.

Warnings of workers at Bhopal ignored

After the 1982 gas leak the workers union of the factory, who had in vain demanded better working conditions and safety measures, printed and distributed hundreds of posters among people of the vicinity that warned: “Beware of Fatal Accidents”, “Lives of thousands of workers and citizens in danger because of poisonous gas”, “Spurt of accidents in the factory, safety measures deficient.” A local journalist, Raajkumar Keswani who had interviewed worried staff at the Union Carbide factory, wrote several exposure articles with headings such as: ‘Bhopal sitting on top of a volcano’. He wrote to politicians warning of the dangerous state of the factory, but it was a cry in the wilderness; the powers that be paid no attention. And yet it is not that they were not aware how deadly the chemical materials involved in previous accidents were. For, phosgene is a highly poisonous gas commonly known as war gas and was used by the rulers of Germany during the First World War. Again MIC was one of the chemical substances once tested as a possible weapon in chemical warfare by the US. In our article in Proletarian Era, dated March 15, 1985 we had raised the question of whether research carried out at the R & D (Research and Development) Wing, which every MNC has, had anything to do with the disaster or what kind of gases had escaped with MIC. To this day the Union Carbide Corporation has refused to divulge the composition of the cloud of poisonous gases that had escaped in the great disaster in 1984.

The fact remains, that to the multinational companies aiming solely at extracting maximum profits by exploiting people, human life has no value, least of all in developing countries. So they do not care to install adequate safety system, neither for the workers within the plant nor for the people living outside. In western countries, where the relatively strong pressure exerted by public consciousness and opinion keeps government and administrative machinery alert, these companies are obliged to keep within the bounds of the prescribed rules and acts, and follow some safety standard. But ours is a country, where the poverty stricken people struggling hard for their bare existence, do not have that adequate level of consciousness regarding industrial hazards, environmental pollution, and where the government has least concern for the lives of hapless poor workers, and hence is also least concerned whether the companies obey the safety rules or not.

This is also glaringly illustrated the way the government dealt with violation of the industrial zoning law in case of Union Carbide. The UCIL factory, that was producing several pesticides involving hazardous and toxic chemicals, was located in a densely populated area, which is illegal. But as far back as 1975 when the then town planning and administrator issued notice to Union Carbide to shift its plant from the populated area, it was he who lost his job, but the plant remained where it was. Again, following the gas leak in 1982 when the proposal for shifting the plant once more came up, the then Congress (I) Labour Minister stated in the Assembly that “Rs 28 crores have been invested in this unit. The factory is not a small stone that can be shifted elsewhere.” Even at that time the level of the environmental pollution caused by the plant exceeded the limit allowed by the Indian Standards Institution (ISI). The Air Pollution Act stated that if the ISI limit is crossed by any factory, the government has the authority to revoke its license. But neither the state nor the central government took any steps against Union Carbide. And how could action be taken against the Union Carbide when the latter acted as a consultant to the central government in matters relating to chemical industry? Moreover, more often than not someone from Union Carbide would sit on the subcommittee preparing the codes of safety in handling and storage of each industrial chemical, published by ISI. The company, of course, like any other multinational never failed to reciprocate for such kind of patronage. Union Carbide had kept a plush guest house at the disposal of the ruling party, with a suite reserved for the Chief Minister. In the company’s roster there were relatives of several ministers and senior bureaucrats of the government. In the dossier published by Raajkumar Keswani these facts found mention. So did the fact that Bhopal’s former Inspector General of Police was employed by Carbide as its security advisor, that the company gave jobs with titles like ‘sports advisor’ to sons and relatives of politicians and civil servants.

The very setting up of the additional MIC-producing unit within the Bhopal plant came in violation of the 1974 FERA regulations requiring foreign equity holdings in Indian companies to be no more than 40 % . Union Carbide, however, was allowed to retain a majority of 50.99 % from its earlier holding of 60 %. It had proposed to the Indian government that it would start producing MIC at Bhopal in return for an exemption from FERA on the grounds that MIC production, a Union Carbide specialty, needed high-technology inputs not available in India. It is the exemption granted by the government that allowed the US multinational to keep majority control over the company.

Instead of advanced technology UCC installed cheap unproven technology in Bhopal

Immediately after the disaster the UCC, the US parent company, claimed it had no authority or control over the plant’s ultimate design or operations, and thus could bear no responsibility for the disaster. Through its powerful Public Relation (PR) machinery it missed no opportunity to spread misinformation. First it circulated the theory of sabotage. When laboratory tests proved the theory to be absurd, it claimed that the 1984 gas leak disaster was a failure of its Indian subsidiary, UCIL, aided and abetted in its negligence and incompetence by the Indian government.

Many details of confidential Union Carbide documents obtained via the ‘discovery’ process during a ‘‘class action’’ brought by survivors against Union Carbide in a Manhattan court, including excerpts of some memos, have been circulated on the internet by the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal. These prove that the UCC — the parent company was not only desperate to retain majority control, but, in fact, the documents reveal its control and authority over the plant. These provide evidence that a series of minor accidents in the Bhopal plant, many of which were suppressed, were due to the fact that the US Union Carbide had installed an unproven technology, in other words it used a cheap unproven method to produce the ultra-hazardous MIC liquid instead of the advanced technology it was supposed to install. The decision was described in a board minute as an ‘acceptable risk’.

The recovered documents show that safety audits at the Bhopal plant were performed by UCC’s American engineers, and after the 1981 phosgene leak it was the management committee in New York who decided what should be done. A ‘business confidential’ safety audit in May 1982 identified 30 major hazards, including 11 in the dangerous phosgene/MIC plant. As a result, safety measures at UCC’s plant in West Virginia were improved, but not in Bhopal, where safety measures were more primitive, anyway. The factory was running at a loss and Carbide was anxious to sell it. However, as an internal memo reveals, it had used unproven technology in the design of an important unit and it would be ‘impossible to sell.’ So, the company went on a cost-cutting spree. The cost-cutting measures were directed by the Danbury Headquarters of Union Carbide. These included slashing the crew of the MIC plant to half and maintenance crew to one third. Safety training for operators of the MIC plant was cut from 6 months to 15 days. In the control room, there was only one operator who was expected to monitor 70-odd panels, indicators and controllers, which often failed.

Moreover, in plants dealing with corrosive chemicals such as MIC, experts want fortnightly inspections of valves, pipes, and pumps, with new replacements every six months, but in Bhopal inspections were rare and replacements were not made for two years. In case of repairs, the use of new parts was curtailed. Old ones had to be recycled.

A glut of deadly MIC

As MIC is a particularly reactive and deadly gas, all over Europe the maximum permissible storage limit for MIC is half a ton. UCC’s West Virginia plant too only stored miniscule amounts of MIC. But at the Bhopal plant, the storage capacity was held hazardously high at over 90 tons. On the night of the disaster, 67 tons of MIC were stored in two tanks. Moreover, the huge tanks of MIC had to be kept, as per the Carbide safety manual at zero Degrees C. But between 1983 and 1984 the safety manuals were re-written to permit switching off the refrigeration, among others, when the plant was not in operation. Consequently the refrigeration unit was turned off to save about $ 40 per day on Freon gas. A private memo from US Union Carbide’s Eastern headquarters in Hong Kong, boasts of having saved $ 1.25 million, but says that ‘future savings would not be so easy.’ At the time of the gas leak disaster not even one of the plant’s safety systems – six in all – was operational, and the plant siren had been turned off.

Is this not criminal! – a crime no less than that of killing people in the gas chamber by hydrocyanic acid, so to say, as did the fascists during the Second World War! And such a crime has been reduced to the equivalent of a mere negligence in a traffic accident in the recent Bhopal verdict!

Treatment meted out to gas victims

After the disaster, Union Carbide as well as the Indian Government long denied that MIC and the other gases caused permanent injuries. In other chemical disasters where the nature of chemicals involved are known effective medical treatment starts immediately. But the suppression of vital medical information by Union Carbide Corporation officials prevented immediate proper medical treatment of the victims. Doctors were told to give eye drops and cough medicine. Even the UCIL which had manufactured MIC since 1980 apparently had no information on its toxicity nor did its medical officer know of any antidote in case of severe exposure. And when medical personnel in Bhopal administered the effective and non-toxic antidote (sodium thiosulfate) to cyanide poisoning to which autopsy reports pointed, the UCC officials began to spread misinformation and strongly discouraged its use. For, obviously, its use would have provided evidence about the serious nature of injuries and implicated them. But such criminal cruelty is but a normal practice for such MNCs. And the government, betraying a worst anti-people mindset, a typical colonial approach of bygone days, acted in connivance to protect corporate interest turning against its own people. At first even the medical officer from UCC’s West Virginia plant recommended the antidote but in the days to follow retracted and openly toed the UCC officials’ line. This deliberate disinformation created confusion and controversy among Indian medical professionals, and in the event, the administration of this antidote was discontinued under official pressure. It was later determined through gas chromatography and mass spectroscopic studies of the tank residue and the blood of victims, autopsies of tissues and tests on the tissues of survivors, that the aerosol inhaled by the affected had contained a mixture of 21 chemicals, including cyanide, i.e. hydrogen cyanide. And only after seven months had elapsed, was the administration of above antidote resumed.

But suppression of evidence, of vital information that could have thrown light on the true nature and extent of the tragedy, and helped to nail down the culpability of Union Carbide, while bolstering up the claim for adequate compensation, did not end there. The only comprehensive survey of Bhopal gas victims, of the damage wrought by the gas leak ever to be undertaken, has yet to see the light of day 25 years later. The survey was undertaken by TISS (Tata Institute of Social Studies) just two weeks from the date of the leak in 1984, while the victims were still visibly suffering from the consequences of inhaling deadly gas. TISS conducted this survey at the request of the then Commissioner of Relief and Rehabilitation for gas victims, but at their own expense. 478 students drawn from different institutions and 41 faculty members – including present Director of TISS, Dr. S. Parasuraman, who was a member of the survey team — covered 25,259 households in a period of six weeks. Filled survey forms were handed over to the state government which promised to return them to TISS once they were processed for data. But nothing more was heard from the government. The survey findings included information about the number of people dead, orphaned children, pregnant women, lost domestic animals, injuries, breathing complications and blindness among other crucial data. Asked whether there was a political motive behind the concealing of data, Ms Desai, former Director of TISS concurred, “What else could it have been since the survey findings were so crucial and complete? I even intimated Rajiv Gandhi about it when he visited TISS in 1985, but nothing came out of it”, she says.

Similar is the case with comprehensive and long term medical studies that could have helped more accurate diagnosis and better medical treatment, besides establishing the case of victims more firmly. Since 1994, soon after which registration and categorization of gas victims was stopped, no comprehensive medical epidemiological studies to determine the long-term health effects of inhaling noxious gases have been carried out. And to the extent such medical follow-up studies were conducted between 1984 and 1994, under the aegis of the Indian Council of Medical Research, their results were withheld from public domain. It was only due to the perseverance of a few retired ICMR scientists that the study was made public a decade later in 2004. But, in the wake of the recent verdict, N R Bhandari who led these studies has alleged that the report did not include the results of some important studies on children.

Blind, lame, limbs twisted or missing, deaf-mute, brain-damaged — these are Bhopal’s children born to gas victims. Even children of gas victims born years after the leak are diseased and suffer from birth defects. But they did not appear in official documents, for children under 18 years were not registered. Instead of taking effective remedial action to ameliorate their condition, instead of demanding justice for these children and proper compensation for the gas victims, all along we find a government-corporate connivance to hush up the actual crime, leaving the victims to their fate.

Victims denied proper registration and categorization

Not to speak of gas victims getting effective medical treatment, even proper examination, registration and correct categorization has been denied to the majority. In order to be eligible for compensation each claimant was to be categorized by a doctor. In court, the claimants were expected to prove “beyond reasonable doubt” that death or injury in each case was attributable to exposure. In the end, it has been found that most of the gas victims have been categorized as having light injuries or temporary disablement, when in fact they remain incapacitated to varying degrees. Many thousand died since 1996 from the after-effects of the gas leak and the condition of diseased victims has worsened with time. Moreover, the pesticides and heavy metals present in the UCIL plant soil itself, as well as in the thousands of tonnes of untreated waste lying around scattered in its premises, have all leached into the groundwater. Even as far as 3 km from the factory, the concentration of six pesticides and heavy metals, including mercury, in the groundwater are 38.6 times higher than the Indian standard according to recent tests conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment. These are the same pesticides and heavy metals found in the plant’s soil samples and waste samples in concentrations that are tens of thousands and even millions of times higher. No remedial action has been taken for all these years. And such groundwater has been consumed by poverty stricken people year after year, which has contributed to growing disease and increasing incidence of cancer compounding their woes. Though they are supposed to get free treatment, victims say, the hospitals often do not have the necessary medicines.

To prevent gas victims from initiating lawsuits themselves, the Indian Congress-led government made itself the sole legal representative for victims of the disaster, by passing the Bhopal Gas Leak Act in March 1985. Repeated demands of survivors’ organizations to set up a Special Prosecution Cell for effective and quick prosecution were turned down by the government. In 1989 it entered into the out of court settlement with UCC, brokered by the Supreme Court, in which the government agreed to accept a paltry compensation of $ 470 million instead of the $ 3 billions originally demanded, and also agreed to the quashing of all civil and criminal charges against UCC.

But when such has been the condition of the gas victims all that they received was a mere trickle of financial compensation, and that too after long years of wait. The maximum those able to get registered as disabled have received is Rs. 25,000 – a mere pittance, a ridiculous sum. It is under such conditions that Rashida Bai exclaimed that those who escaped with their lives “are the unlucky ones; the lucky ones are those who died on that night.”

But several times when gas victims mobilized and marched to Delhi, trying to present their legitimate demands, including the demand for clean drinking water, to the government, they were lathi-charged and women and children alike thrown into jail. The same inhuman treatment they got in Bhopal, more than once. But for the guilty there was VIP treatment. To Warren Anderson, the then CEO of Union Carbide Corporation, who was responsible most of all for the leak, not merely was safe passage granted but a government plane was put at his disposal after the disaster, to reach Delhi and he was seen off like a state guest.

The situation was extremely favourable for surge of an intense left-democratic movement for unmasking the dubious role of the government and in demand for righteous claims of the victims. But that did not materialize because the CPI(M), CPI who call themselves Marxists and at the drop of a hat can disrupt Parliament by siding with this party today and that party tomorrow on this or that issue –did not traverse that course and refrained from building up an effective struggle that would have put pressure on the government. All these 26 long years, they practically observed a code of silence and thus acquiesced in the move of the ruling class to suppress the whole issue.

However, the victim’s struggle in Bhopal, led by different organizations, has been going on undaunted. It has never stopped. Theirs is a struggle for justice, they declare, so that other people do not have to suffer the same fate.

Deliberate delay and bungling of investigations under official pressure

In the immediate aftermath of the Bhopal verdict the Congress and BJP engaged in a veritable war of words as to who had allowed Anderson to leave the country, whether or not Rajiv Gandhi was involved, to divert attention from other more pertinent questions, such as for example, why a request for Anderson’s extradition, the then CEO of UCC, who was responsible most of all for the leak was only made in 2004, so many years after the ghastly disaster? In which period Congress and BJP-led governments at the Centre came and went, besides a United Front coalition. But none did anything to speed up the investigation by the CBI.

Today, after the Bhopal verdict, Mr B R Lall, former Joint director of CBI who was in charge of the probe from April 1994 to July 1995 alleged that the CBI probe was “influenced”. He said that he was forced by the Ministry of External Affairs officials not to press for extradition of Warren Anderson, the CEO of Union Carbide Corporation when the gas leak took place 26 years ago. “CBI investigation was influenced and commanded by some officials”, he said, “as a result the justice in the Bhopal Gas leakage case got delayed, hence, denied”.

The delay in bringing charges, the inaction, and the deliberate bungling CBI resorted to all these years, are not much different from the way it ‘handled’ Bofors. But then Bofors is a case of corruption and Bhopal a matter of life and death for the victims. The list of failures that involve delaying tactics and deliberate bungling of the CBI that have led to the present mockery of justice is long. Among others, the CBI failed to present the documentary evidence available that demonstrate that UCC, and Warren Anderson were well aware in 1975 that the technology for the MIC plant in Bhopal was “untested”, and that would have shown that the design of the Bhopal plant was substantially different and inferior in terms of safety when compared to the MIC plant owned by Union Carbide in Institute, West Virginia, USA. There is documentary evidence available that links each of the accused to deliberate acts undermining operational safety such as rewriting of operation manuals, decommissioning the crucial refrigeration unit and eliminating the maintenance supervisor from most work shifts, etc., – evidence that establishes that Keshub Mahindra and other officials knew or should have known about the hazardous design of the plant and the additional hazards due to design modifications.

The CBI has failed to deliver summons and execute arrest warrants against three UCC officials despite being India’s Interpol agency. It has failed to visit the Institute, West Virginia plant to document the design differences between the two plants that would show that the Bhopal plant was deliberately under designed. It has failed to stop accused Union Carbide Eastern Inc., Hong Kong – the regional headquarters of UCC directly involved in policy matters concerning Bhopal plant — from “disappearing”. And last, but not least, it has failed to prevent the sale of shares of UCC, USA in UCIL in 1994 thus loosening the grip of the Indian court over the absconding corporation.

Nor did the CBI take any action when the Supreme Court in 1996 diluted the criminal charges against UCIL officials from culpable homicide (Section 304 II) that carries a 10-year prison term, to mere negligence (section 304 (a)) with a maximum 2-year sentence. CBI failed to appeal against such dilution of the crime, when there was need to actually press for a more stringent charge carrying life sentence. In return, the then Chief Justice A M Ahmedi who headed the bench passing this order, became the chairman for life of the Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust set up by UCC, soon after giving this order, when he retired in 1997. The Supreme Court action glaringly illustrates the fact that the judicial system in any capitalist country has been set up with a view to protecting and serving the interest of the ruling class, not that of the people. For after this earlier ruling of the Supreme Court no other verdict was possible than the one that has been awarded. The guilty have received the maximum sentence possible under this section. What a travesty of justice, what a mockery of long 26 years of wait and unbearable sufferings for half a million gas victims!

Bhopal verdict has given burial to justice

It is a conspiracy to protect and shield the guilty and cheat the victims of their dues — proper medical treatment, proper compensation and rehabilitation, and most of all justice for which they have fought so long, and the assurance that such crimes will be sternly dealt with in future. Rather, by reducing the crime of deliberately gassing the people of a city with poison gas – for what else can the actions by Union Carbide be called — to nothing more than negligence in a traffic accident, this verdict has created a sinister precedent with perilous consequences for people in future.

Now, in the present situation, we find the government has suddenly sweet words of sympathy for the Bhopal victims, but it is at the same time pushing for the Nuclear Liability Bill, which clearly exposes its hypocrisy. For, this bill, if passed, will ensure that US suppliers of nuclear reactors, even if they are responsible for any nuclear accidents on Indian soil, will get away scot-free or with a monetary pittance. Surely the very real dangers this entails of opening up an even more calamitous scenario centring round the hazardous production of nuclear power, cannot be overstated. In this context the words of Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh to Sathyu Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action in 2006 that “Bhopals will happen, but the country has to progress”, (Outlook, 21 June, 2010), are ominous, to say the least.

The Bhopal verdict that has let the perpetrators of the crime get away scot-free has deeply shocked people, who have reacted with indignation : how is this possible! This cannot be allowed to happen! Anyone with even minimum human element, irrespective of political or non-political views or allegiance is feeling indignation. It is this sense of indignation which is the only redeeming feature in this sordid chapter. It shows that all is not lost. Its deep implications have not been lost on the government either. Suddenly after all these 26 years, what a record the GoM (Group of Ministers) has scored! So much sympathy it has for the victims that its recommendations were ready even before the deadline of 10 days! And with those recommendations what it aimed at is to cap people’s anger, to divert people’s attention and media attention to the issue of ‘compensation’ to be disbursed from public exchequer. But what it has done in the name of compensation is adding insult to injury. Recommending now a sum of Rs. 10 lakhs for death, Rs. 5 lakhs for permanently disabled and 3 lakhs for temporary disabled, after 26 years of inhuman suffering – unable to work, incapacitated, lives blighted — what value does such an amount have in the prevailing conditions? Had they received that amount of compensation immediately after the disaster it could have carried some meaning for the victims. But all they got was a beggarly so-called compensation of Rs. 60, 000 for death and Rs. 25,000 for disability, all in all, and even that after many years of wait, completely destitute, unable to work. And the greatest hoax of all is that 91 per cent of the gas victims are not even eligible for the renewed compensation! For the Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram, was categorical: new claims would not be entertained. So, that leaves out, to be exact, 521,000 victims, according to Abdul Jabbar, convenor of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, including offspring of the victims, who have inherited serious health complications from their gas-affected parents, some of whom can’t even walk. Also left out are those whose injuries have now compounded due to progressive degeneration over time, and those who experienced complications after 1996, when registration of claims was stopped. Now they get a few ‘crumbs’ of relief accompanied by sweet words of sympathy, what humiliation for the victims! This is the kind of sympathy the government has for the victims.

Today, when the Bhopal verdict has given burial to gas victim’s demand for justice, people are indignant that the Supreme Court could dispense such supreme injustice by blatantly obstructing the course of justice. And that the government could act so cruelly and inhuman from beginning to end!

Why this travesty of justice

It is only but natural that a heartless merciless treatment of the kind to such a vast multitude of hapless suffering human beings, the judicial process and judicial verdict virtually working as a protector to the perpetrators of this horrendous crime and their accomplices, are agitating the thinking sensitive countrymen in whom still resides essence of humanism. Perplexed and shocked, they are having no clue as to how could such barbarity and palpable denial of rudimentary justice get a sanction of the governing authorities. We shall sincerely urge upon this saner conscientious section of the people that any attempt to seek an explanation of this apparent anomaly estranged from the obtaining socio-political system will ultimately prove to be abortive and hence purposeless. The answer lies in the very social order we are living in—a capitalist order. It is not a capitalist order of the days of advent of capitalism as a progressive force nor is it representative of the capitalist system even during its phase of development. As Karl Marx had shown, the bourgeoisie had been oppressing and repressing the working class and other sections of the toiling people right from the day it was saddled in power. And the oppression was ruthless as well and hence Marx gave call for overthrowing capitalism from power with a view to abolishing all exploitation of man by man. But even in those days, under pressure of people’s movement, the ruling bourgeoisie had conceded many legitimate demands of the people and honoured many democratic rights of the workers. At that time, the bourgeoisie was not as irresponsible and despotic as it is today. It betrayed some sense of responsibility to the society and a minimum sense of obligation to the masses. At that time, conscious public opinion, awareness and vigil which were in place as a result of the progressive thoughts of Renaissance worked as a powerful bulwark against injustice, undemocratic acts or flouting of rules. But, once capitalism entered its decadent phase, became moribund, it is enmeshed in an acute insoluble market crisis. In a frantic bid to provide an extra lease of life to its moribund crisis-ridden class rule, it has stripped itself of all such obligations and sense of responsibility, is imposing one after another unbearable burden on the people and is savagely slashing the very rights and benefits it had once conceded to the toiling people, trampling with impunity all democratic norms and values, violating long established rules. It has become so violent and cruel as not to hesitate even to suck out the last drop of blood of the worker. Whatever relative freedom it allowed to its state apparatus including judiciary is also being gradually taken away to make the state completely subservient to its dictates. Democracy is now virtually turned into autocracy and even the last vestiges of democratic norms, values and practices are given a burial. Though a façade of bourgeois democracy which is nothing but socio-political order of capitalism remains, it is hollow inside — a bare skeleton that bears mark of death and hence is dreaded if encountered with. So, in such a mockery of democracy, it is futile to expect that even judiciary would forsake the class interest of the bourgeoisie to uphold people’s cause. Bhopal gas episode is a naked revelation of that. Unless capitalism is uprooted, such aberrations, injustice, savagery and travesty of democracy will manifest in swelling numbers. That is why, it has become utmost interest that the working class closes its rank afresh and develops movements with renewed vigour and determination and in fraternity with all other sections of the oppressed people to overthrow capitalism by revolution. All democratic movements against capitalist misrule must be so developed as to be conducive of anti-capitalist revolution. There is no other course left before people, no other way to assert their right or wrest their legitimate demands.

Build up movement for the cause of Bhopal victims

Coming back to the travesty of justice to the Bhopal gas disaster victims, the people are seething with anger. Mood of condemnation as well as an urge for a remedial action is prevalent throughout the country. So the situation is ripe for a countrywide massive movement over the issue in demand for rescinding the Bhopal Court judgment, stringent punishment of the guilty including corporate bigwigs and ensuring availability of adequate compensation, medical treatment and other required facilities to the victims and their families. Even world people’s opinion is in favour of such a movement. But as we have mentioned earlier, this extremely desired movement is not crystallizing with requisite might and intensity mainly because of the treacherous role of the pseudo-Marxists like the CPI(M), CPI. Often they are found to be vociferous on ticklish issues and stir up the political atmosphere. But what made them remain a passive onlooker to such a serious matter where the entire bourgeois system can be put in the dock and the cloak of democracy torn apart. We know why so and the people also are slowly understanding the same from their experience. Though they claim themselves to be Marxists-leftists and the bourgeois media also play a second fiddle to such a claim to make people nurture such an illusion, the fact is that these parties true to their social-democratic character have now completely placed themselves at the disposal of the ruling bourgeois class for pelf and power. They have a clandestine understanding with the class and hence are committed to keep the people away from the real path of anti-capitalist movement either by making a show of movement, at times under media glare for playing to the gallery and reap electoral benefits or quietly reducing important people’s issues into insignificance or cunningly channelize people’s wrath and ire along wrong line to fizzle out over time. But they will no more be able to keep their true face under wraps for long. We fervently appeal to the honest rank of CPI(M), CPI who still feel the pinch of conscience, are sensitive to the plight and misery of the oppressed and carry respect and emotion for leftism to prevail upon their leaders to abandon the path of doom and betrayal. There is still time for that. And to the people at large, we call upon to come forward and build up in every nook and corner of the country powerful movement in support of the cause of the Bhopal gas victims and unmask the vile face of moribund capitalism which is weighing down on the country like a dead weight. SUCI(C) is engaged wholeheartedly in building up these people’s movements.

The 62nd foundation anniversary of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), the only genuine communist party on Indian soil, was observed amidst enthusiasm in Delhi, the national capital of the country. A public meeting was organized on the occasion at Gandhi peace foundation Hall. Com. Satyawan, Member, Central Committee of the party, was the main speaker in the meeting. The program started with floral tributes to the portrait of comrade Shibdas Ghosh, the founder General Secretary of the party and an eminent Marxist thinker of the present era. Comrade Pran Sharma presided over the meeting. The meeting started with the song on comrade Shibdas Ghosh and ended with the rendition of the Internationale.

In his speech Com. Satyawan elaborated the historical background in which comrade Shibdas Ghosh and his few comrades in arms had taken the responsibility of building up the Socialist Unity Centre of India as the genuine communist party in India in spite of the existence of the then undivided Communist Party of India (CPI). Though in name communist and having mass support and recognition from the international communist movement, the CPI utterly failed in grasping the Leninist process of building up a genuine communist party on Indian soil. The party couldn’t thus develop as a communist party and remained at best a petty bourgeois party.

Comrade Ghosh understood with deep pain that without a genuine working class party in the country, the glorious struggles made by the toiling people of India will go astray and their real emancipation will remain a far cry. He with a handful of revolutionary compatriots undertook the arduous but historic task of building SUCI(C) as the only genuine communist party in India. Today, through the continuation of that struggle, which after his demise was resolutely carried forward by Com. Nihar Mukherji, the party has spread to almost all corners and entire length and breadth of the country.

Com. Satyawan said that the world capitalism-imperialism is in unprecedented crisis. Even after frantic attempts, the rulers of the imperialist capitalist world are far from finding any solution to the crisis. Everywhere the crisis ridden bourgeois is shifting the burden of the crisis on to the shoulders of the toiling millions; throughout the world again there is a surge of mass movements. In our country also, unemployment, hunger, skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, privatization/commercialization of health and education etc. have led the common man to misery and destitution. The parliamentary parties who at one time or other have been or are in governmental power in states or at the centre, are out to mislead the people by putting up a mock fight of opposition only on the issue of price-rise to cash on the seething anger of the people for their petty electoral benefits. The so-called Left parties are no exception. The 13-party alliance formed by them is nothing but an opportunistic arrangement between regional, parochial, communal and casteist forces eyeing on the forthcoming assembly elections in states of West Bengal, Kerala etc.

The SUCI(C), which is already in the midst of a country-wide movement against the price-rise and all other problems which have made the life of the people miserable, in continuation of these struggles has given a call for an all India general strike on 27th April 2010. This is the only way for strengthening the mass movements at the same time exposing the game of these parliamentary parties. Com. Satyawan called upon all the people to come forward to build up protracted struggle, under the guidance of the party, by building up people’s own instruments of struggle that is the people’s struggle committees. The meeting was also addressed by Com. Pratap Samal, Secretary, SUCI(C), Delhi Committee.

Com. Pran Sharma, who presided over the meeting, appealed to all the comrades and sympathizers to strengthen the process of revitalization and consolidation for an all-round development of the comrades ideologically, politically, culturally and organizationally. He pointed out that it was for the first time that the party foundation Day was being observed without the direct guidance of the founder leaders of the Party. However, they have left with us a treasure-house of knowledge. We have to acquire the capacity to master that knowledge and to lead the people’s struggles to their logical culmination of ultimately making victorious the anti-capitalist socialist revolution in India.

Comrade K. Somashekar, the president of United Railway Contract Workers Union and AIUTUC state secretary, Karnataka, the main speaker, in his address said “the contract workers in the railway dept are facing severe exploitation. They are not paid the wages regularly on the fixed date, they are denied of minimum wages, medical facilities and even the PF. they are working in unhygenic condition.” Calling upon the workers to fight for their rights he said that the workers must demand for continuation of their work even if the contractor changes, stoppage of threatening them of firing if they demand justice and urged the management to re-instate the workers removed from their jobs. He called upon the workers to wage a powerful movement against privatisation.

Comrade Mahapatra demanded for putting an end to contract system and regulalrisation of services.

All India UTUC Andhra Pradesh incharge Comrades K. Sudhir and Maharashtra railway workers’ leader Comrade Anil Thyagi also addressed the gathering, presided over by the General Secretary of the Union Comrade Shashidhar.

Hundreds of workers from Mysore, Bangalore and Hubli divisions participated in the convention. Before the convention they marched in a procession through the city and submitted a memorandum to the General Manager of SWR at Hubli.

This clearly shows how this Congress-led government is bent upon delivering one after another deadly blow under this or that plea to the toiling masses constituting over 90% of the population whose real income is plummeting day by day, while it at the same time is offering plethora of concessions, waivers, packages and amnesty to the monopolists and corporate bigwigs whose fortunes are swelling.

Calling upon the countrymen not to be misled by the mischievous propaganda and mala fide argumentation of the capitalist government but to come forward to develop powerful resistance movement against the government’s pernicious move to decontrol or deregulate petrol-diesel prices and jack up prices of cooking gas and kerosene, Comrade Mukherjee also urged them to realize that except building up united militant democratic movements, they have no other means to defend themselves against repeated bouts of brutal assaults by the capitalist state and government.

Nihar Mukherjee

Nihar Mukherjee is the General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist),  died of cardiac arrest on 18 February 2010 at Kolkatta.

He is a founder member of the party and became the General Secretary after the death of Shibdas Ghosh in 1976. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Proletarian Era, the official newspaper of the organization.

He was sick and hospitalized for a long time. He has been suffering from sepsis and multiple organ dysfunction syndromes due to multidrug resistant organism (acinetobacter baumannii).

The main speaker AIDSO Vice- President Com. Subrat Gauri pointed out the dangers of the present educational policy which the government is implementing hastily without even democratically consulting the education loving people of the country. It is a part of the larger design of the government to give education into private hands which will pave the way for self financing institutions set up by domestic and foreign investors and will result in massive fee hikes which will take education out of the hands of the poor and middle class students and destroy whatever remains of the secular, democratic and scientific education. The speakers spoke against the scrapping of UGC, AICTE, MCI and the policy of making class X exam optional and introduction of grading system at the school level.

Former vice-president of AIDSO Com. Prakash Saini also spoke at the occasion. Other speakers who addressed the gathering were Com. Bhaskar Anand (President, Delhi AIDSO), Com. Prashant (Secretary, Delhi AIDSO), and Comrade Ritambhara (In charge, JNU unit). The program was conducted by Com. Deepak Ranjan Jha who is the president of DU Committee, AIDSO.

On the eve of the general elections, the NGO Praja launched its second white paper focusing on the issues faced in the six Mumbai constituencies.

The white paper contains details of the problems and issues that citizens of Mumbai face on a day to day basis. The information is collected through Right-to-Information Act and is available on praja.org website.

The report draws light on a variety of city related issues including civic, crime, health and education. “While these problems are at the micro level and might not directly pertain to the ambit of scope for an MP, each of them needs a macro and long term approach to bring about a solution. We believe that due to the continuous neglect of national issues like the rule of Law, Good and rational economic policy, decentralization of power and not strictly implementing local self government model has resulted in a vicious fermentation of problems that has created its own vortex of abyss. It is here that the elected members of Parliament need to bring the macro issues to a national consciousness through the power that their constituents bestow them with. And hopefully, through their good offices, goad the relevant implementing authorities to address the issues on a priority basis.” says Nitai Mehta, founder trustee Praja

To be sure, the MPs who eventually get elected for this Lok Sabha will have a plethora of promises to keep to their constituents, Praja aims to raise some of the key issues that are plaguing the city of Mumbai.

Section A of the report deals with Civic issues in Mumbai. It highlights the total number of complaints filed in an MP constituency across Mumbai and in that number of Miscellaneous and related/others complaints. In turn it also shows that MCGM has nearly 66% of the complaints that are either Miscellaneous or marked as others. The report questions the fact that if the MCGM itself does not know how to define the problem, how will it be able to solve it?

Further, the top three complaints filed include building related issues, license issues and water complaints. Buildings related issues (details of Building related problems given below) is the top civic issue across all 6 constituencies. The lack of clear policy’s on old buildings, rent act, redevelopment of the old buildings, corruption and over legislation on issues has led to buildings always being the biggest problem in the city.

The next section of the report deals with crime. Of the number of Cases registered across Mumbai, the South Central constituency has the highest cases registered in both FIR and NC. The top two FIR cases filed are theft and vehicles stolen. North Central constituency has registered cases of 838 stolen vehicles, the highest among the six constituencies.

The report also reveals that South Mumbai considered the safest, highly educated and affluent has the highest cases of Rape registered. South Mumbai, South Central Mumbai and North Central Mumbai have over 60% of all the rape cases registered in the city.

Of heinous crimes in the city which include, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and riots South, South Central and North Central have 81% of all the heinous registered in Mumbai. South Central has the highest registered number of 953 cases.

Moving on to education in the city, the report shows the number of dropouts and passout students in Municipal schools of each constituency. It is clear that there is a drop out rate of 5% to 8% each year. This proves that over the years there has been no improvement in the dropout rates from the Municipal schools. These frightening statistics show that if 100 children enter the 1st standard only 12 remain till the 10th standard. The North East constituency shows the lowest passing rate among students.

The health issues in the city are of deep concern. The top five diseases registered at the municipal dispensary’s which are run by the MCGM across the city are diarrhea, hypertension, tuberculosis, malaria and diabetes. Diarrhea is the highest across the 6 constituencies. This is directly related to the quality of water supply in Mumbai. These findings are surprising for a city like Mumbai which is the best that India has to offer in terms of facilities has not been able to provide the basics of clean drinking water.

Says Nitai Mehta, “Our aim is to make the incumbent MPs aware of the issues plaguing the six constituencies of Greater Mumbai; The issues might be civic and local, but they need to be tackled from a macro perspective and from the Parliament. At the very least, they need to be aware of the problems of their respective constituencies that have elected them.”

- About Praja-

Founded in 1998, The PRAJA Foundation is a non-partisan voluntary organization which empowers the citizen to participate in the governing process. With a view to provide knowledge, transparency, accountability and enlist people’s participation, PRAJA specifically aims to provide ways in which the citizen can get politically active and involved beyond the ballot box.

Concerned about the lack of awareness of the local government among citizens, and hence the disinterest in its functioning, PRAJA seeks change. With citizens having become apathetic toward public services, and branding the same as corrupt, PRAJA strives to create awareness about the elected representatives and their constituencies. It aims to encourage the citizen to raise his/her voice and influence the policy and working of the elected representative. This will eventually lead to constituency efforts being directed towards the specified cause of public interest.

The PRAJA foundation strives to revive the waning spirit of Mumbai City, and increase the interaction between the citizens and the government. To facilitate this, Praja has created praja.org , an online website where the citizen can not only discuss the issues that their constituencies face, but can also get in touch with their elected representatives directly. The website has been equipped with information like the issues faced by the ward, the corporators, the responses received and a discussion board allowing an interaction between the citizens of the area.

PRAJA’s goals are simplifying people’s lives, empowering the citizens and government with facts and creating instruments of change to improve the quality of life of citizens in India. PRAJA is committed to creating an accountable and efficient society through people’s participation.

With the analysis page, visitors can slice and dice data as they like and bring up statistics like oldest and youngest MPs in the 2004 parliament, number of women candidates elected in the previous polls, public record of candidates, number of constituencies per city, social details about constituencies like working population, area and literate population amongst others. MapmyIndia has joined hands with NoCriminals.org in providing this information on candidates.

MapmyIndia has had earlier links with the election process as well. The highly popular Jaago Re campaign is powered by maps from MapmyIndia for displaying constituencies. For 5 major cities in India, MapmyIndia has also plotted polling booths in constituencies for Jaago Re, so that voters know where they can go to cast their vote.

One notable feature of the site is that of constituency boundaries being marked on the digital maps. Due to the constituency delimitation exercise since the last polls, voters now have a quick reference to see which polling booth they can go to cast their vote.

The site also serves as an effective platform for agencies, parties, party supporters and general citizens to get quick analysis results.

“MapmyIndia has always been a socially conscious organization and has made available access to high quality data like driving directions or location of nearest points like hospitals, ATMs, etc. For the upcoming Indian elections, MapmyIndia wants to play a role in strengthening Indian democracy by providing the electorate a freely available source of information at our portal so that users can cast their vote after analysis of relevant information on their candidates and constituencies,” says Rakesh Verma, Managing Director, MapmyIndia.

The other features of the special elections portal of MapmyIndia include:1. Search your parliamentary constituency: Key-in your street name and find out where you need to vote2. In-depth analysis of political parties and constituencies: Analyze political parties and constituencies in multiple ways; find who’s the oldest and the youngest MP, which constituencies have female MPs etc.3. Constituencies and their area: Find how constituency boundaries have changed since 2004. Search for the largest and smallest constituencies by area, population, literacy and other parameters.4. Polls and forums: Discuss issues that you feel strongly about and vote for them in online polls with participation from like-minded people.5. Track record of politicians: View data on clean and other MPs and the cases against them.

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About MapmyIndia

MapmyIndia (CE Info Systems (P) Ltd.), a New Delhi-based ISO 9001-2000 Company founded in 1992, is India’s leader in premium quality digital map data and consumer navigation services. Since 1994, through continuous field surveys and state-of-the-art mapping technology, the company has built its proprietary MapmyIndia Maps, the most comprehensive, accurate, robust and reliable navigable map dataset for all India. MapmyIndia is driving the Indian navigation industry by providing internet, mobile and in-car navigation products to end consumers directly as well as in partnership with leading international and national players. The company has been providing GIS based enterprise solutions to over 500 leading corporate and government organizations in every vertical. In 2004, MapmyIndia was short listed by NASSCOM as a showcase company for IT innovation in India. Most recently, MapmyIndia’s Managing Director was elected by GPS Business News as the “World’s GPS Businessman for the year 2007″ for driving the navigation industry in India.