The Bharatiya Janata Party once again demanded that the Congress apologise to the nation for its callousness towards victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy but welcomed the belated Planning Commission approval of a Rs. 982 crore relief package for victims.
Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad noted that after clarifications, interviews and statements from the former Foreign Affairs secretary, M.K. Rasgotra, the former U.S. deputy head in the embassy, the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Arjun Singh, and others, it had become clear that the Rajiv Gandhi government at the time of the tragedy provided “safe passage” to then Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson.
Mr. Singh had broken his silence to say he had “no locus standi” in the case relating to Mr. Anderson “safe” passage home to the United States. Why has the government been consistently and deliberately misleading the country, Mr. Prasad asked.
Referring to the approval of the relief package for victims by the Planning Commission, he noted that Madhya Pradesh government had asked for this relief two years ago. He hoped the Group of Ministers for the Bhopal case would now expeditiously disburse relief to victims of the world's worst industrial disaster.
“Buying time”
Hyderabad Special Correspondent reports:
BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu demanded that the Union government file a curative petition seeking stringent punishment to the perpetrators of gas tragedy and adequate compensation to the thousands of victims.
The constitution of the Group of Ministers was an exercise in buying time, he told a press conference here.
The BJP leader said the Congress leadership sending Anderson safely out of the country after the disaster was tantamount to “treason.” He criticised the Congress leadership for its bid to pass the blame to the then Home Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao. “Can a Home Minister take a decision on such a sensitive issue without the Prime Minister's consent?”
