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Blood Is But Blood But Not For USA

By Raja Jaikrishan

08 June, 2010
Countercurrents.org

The US administration has different scales to measure justice at home and abroad. It goes after British Petroleum for blowing up an oilrig in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 workers and damaged the ecology.

It tries to raise the liability cap to $1.5 billion so that BP bears costs not directly connected to cleaning up the spill, such as lost wages and tourism. The Republican roadblock in the Senate has hit a bill mooted in this regard.

But when it comes to the genocide by the US major Union Carbide in Bhopal, Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake says, “ I hope this verdict (seven Indian Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) were convicted for causing death of millions by negligence with two year prison term and fine) helps bring some closure to the victims”. The UCIL officials have been bailed and released on submission of a surety of Rs 25,000 each.

On the extradition of Warren Anderson, the then Union Carbide chairman, Blake refused to comment. Anderson has jumped bail and been declared proclaimed offender after he failed to respond the Bhopal trial court warrants.

Law minister M Veerappa Moily says: “Legally and technically, we can't say it (the case against Anderson) is over. The case against him is still on... suppose he can be obtained, he can still be tried".

What can we expect from the US administration when our government colludes in the MNC war on our people. The following couplet describes our condition:
We travelers are never out of woods,

We have highway robbers as guides.

The Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster Act was passed during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure .The Act gave the government right to represent all victims in or outside India. To keep US investment flowing in, the compensation for a few million lives and their challenged progeny was pegged at $470 million. The Supreme Court accepted this full and final settlement of its civil and criminal liability.

In Blood is but blood Sahir says:
The blood you sought to suppress in abattoir
Today that blood moves out into street
Here an ember, there a slogan, there a stone
Once blood comes to flows
Bayonets are no avail
Head, once it is raised
Is not downed by law’s hail.

Our governments and courts have suppressed the raised heads of the Bhopal gas tragedy survivors. Like the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster Act the Nuclear Liability Bill underscore the Indian Government doesn’t mind the corporate violence against its own people.

The Congress-led UPA government is again trying to push through the controversial nuclear liability bill. The Bill seeks to limit all liability arising out of a nuclear accident to about $450 million and the liability of the operator only to Rs 300 crore. The difference between $450 million and Rs 300 crore (about $67 million) is the government’s liability. Considering our population density and lax industrial safety record a nuclear accident can cause a hundredfold Chernobyl in minutes. The corporation concerned would pay a token amount and the Indian taxpayers would end up paying billions for the clean up and compensation to the victims.