New Delhi: The fallout of the Bhopal verdict is now set to hit the White House as the victims of the gas leak tragedy have written to US President Barack Obama asking him to extradite former Union Carbide Corp CEO Warren Anderson to India to face justice.
Anderson, who now lives in New York, is one of the main accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy case. He was flown out of India by the then Madhya Pradesh government on December 7, 1984, just four days after the gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal which is estimated to have killed 20,000 people and injured half-a-million.
"We have also written a letter to US President Barack Obama appealing him to help us with this case," says Abdul Jabbar, Convenor, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sanghathan (Bhopal Gas Victims Women Forum).
He adds that Obama's statement that the Bhopal gas tragedy was India's "internal matter" was wrong.
The gas leak case sparked outrage among the victims after a local court in Bhopal sentenced seven former Union Carbide officials to two years imprisonment and fined them Rs 1 lakh each for negligence. All the convicts are now out on bail.
Meanwhile, the Congress, having admitted to letting Anderson go, continues to defend late former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Arjun Singh, saying that the decision was taken by the then governments to maintain law and order.
On Saturday, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily even tried to put the blame on the judiciary for failing to provide justice to the victims.
However, despite admission, there still remain some unanswered questions which the party would have to answer.
Questions are now being raised as to why Anderson was allowed to leave the country even if moving him out of Bhopal is accepted on the ground that it could have created law and order problem.
Could he have been allowed to leave the country without the permission of the Centre and the Ministry of External Affairs, both headed by the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi? Also, once arrested under section 304, how could Anderson get bail so easily?
Lastly, the Congress party would also have to explain what took it almost 26 years to accept the involvement of its government in freeing Anderson.
Meanwhile, the BJP has lashed out at the Congress over the entire episode.
Speaking at a BJP rally in Patna on Sunday, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi went a step further and asked Congress President Sonia Gandhi to speak on the issue.
With the Opposition getting fresh ammunition to take on the Congress, and the victims taking their case to the US President, the issue is unlikely to die out soon.
(With inputs from Pallavi Ghosh)
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