At this same moment two decades and a half ago, poisonous fumes leaked out of a pesticide plant in Bhopal, killing thousands of people. According to government figures about 3,000 people died. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, between 8,000 and 10,000 people died in the first three days of the gas leak. About 25,000 died of exposure to radiation within the next ten years.
Tragic, isn't it? That an industrial disaster could have caused so much death and destruction?
But what is more tragic is that 25 years later, the government still claims that there are no hazardous chemical wastes in the Union Carbide factory or around it. This, when independent groups have conducted research that calls their bluff.
To add to it, the Madhya Pradesh government wants about Rs 116 crore from the Centre to build a Hiroshima-type memorial at the site.
Isn't it crazy? Rs 116 crore, which is almost 5% of the total sum the Indian government got as compensation for the thousands of victims affected by the leak of methyl isocyanate will be spent on setting up a memorial for the victims. So much of it can be spent on medical research that may find cures to the various kinds of ailments that come with drinking poison everyday. After all, isn't it tragic, that even 25 years after a pesticide plant misfired and shut down, children are still born with deformities?
Or with foresight, the government may find a more permanent and lasting solution to the drinking water problem there, so that at least from now on, they will not be drinking contaminated water.
The government could also spend the money on cleaning up the crap left behind by Union Carbide, so that there can be an end to the continued contamination. There could be special facilities for those affected by the gas leak.
But no, what we want there, is a memorial, where more and more politicians in future can go to pay homage to the people they have failed and will continue to fail.
What will be the purpose of such a memorial? To remember the futility of the deaths? To keep reminding ourselves of how well we have failed them? Or to pat ourselves on our back that we have the courage to continue working and making people work in death traps such as the Union Carbide plant?
It really makes me wonder about the value of human life. Is there any value for life? Or have we stooped so far below into the depths of greed that we do not care anymore?
Will things change? What is the price of justice? What is the fruit of justice?
When we have deadlines for everything, why not for something as basic as a deadline to provide the right to a life of dignity so that we don't die like flies stuck to a swatter, helpless, and oblivious to the greater heights we can aspire for.
It's 1.26 am. Maybe the fumes would have been churning now, waiting to escape into the dark starry night and poison a city's destiny. May be I should just go to bed and leave the world handle its minor glitches on its own.
:(
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