Bhopal verdict — a disappointment?

The Bhopal verdict came and went.
Many people were disappointed. But seriously, what were they expecting?
We lost the Bhopal battle long ago, again and again. Yesterday, it was just once again that we lost it.
December 3, 1984: People dying like flies after inhaling the Methyl Isocyanate emanating from the Union Carbide factory. Doctors helplessly watching them die as they did not know what the poison was and what drug to administer.
Warren Anderson CAME to India. You cannot fault him on that. Then we just helped him leave, made all the arrangements and wished him Godspeed... Am not surprised he never came back.
We said it was criminal negligence when it was culpable homicide. If people working at a pesticide plant did not know switching off a refigeration unit would have affected the safety standards at the factory and proved devastating, as they did in 1983, what were they doing there? Why were they allowed to be there? And if they did something so inane, should it be negligence or homicide? It could be negligence if they did not know...but there is evidence that they were informed about the act and the dangers it posed.
Why did we let them off?
We asked for more than 3 billion dollars in compensation. Forget the 15,000 and counting lives lost. That sum, disbursed well, could have helped those who survived live a life of dignity with better medical facilities and probably research that could prevent the disastrous effect the fumes had on generations to come.
We settled for a pittance. $470 million...We sold ourselves and our people for that sum. Whom were we trying to appease?
We let a case that involved the immediate death of 3,000 people and the subsequent deaths of thousands others drag for more than two decades. We never made the attempt to make the man who headed the Union Carbide accountable for the disaster the company caused.
We forged new ties with the company in its myriad forms. We accepted funds from it in other ways. We told the people they were hallucinating when they claimed the water in the area was poisoned.
We allowed the generations that followed forget the Bhopal Gas Tragedy so much so that in Bhopal today there are people who did not what happened on a cold winter night of 1984.
We clamour for justice. We want those men to be sent to the gallows. And we are disappointed when seven of them get two years in prison. Why?
The people who are struggling everyday for pure drinking water, adequate compensation and more may be agitating because they believe in justice. I am sure they will appeal the trial court's verdict.
But I am a cynic. Or have I become one? I know the same politicans who allowed Anderson to get away, who claim the water from the area surrounding Union Carbide's skeletal factory is drinkable, will be voted back to power. And they will continue to spend millions on building a memorial for the gas victims even as they cite paucity of funds when it comes to spending on research into the ongoing effects of the dance of death.
And the same politicians will set up more memorials when another such industrial disaster, god forbid, occurs in some other unsuspecting factory in some other part of the country.
For God's sake, there's more to worry about right now. And public memory is short-lived. We will wait for the next anniversary before raking the same old facts again. Meanwhile, life will go on in the ghettoes of old Bhopal, and in a sunny villa somewhere in the US.

Tharoornama

A lot of things on my mind. First things first. Shashi Tharoor has resigned from his post as minister of state for external affairs. The whole Tharoor=Lalit Modi controversy over the franchisees of the Kochi IPL team must have grabbed as many eyeballs as Modi's pet matches, if not more.
But of late, there's juts one emotion that reigns supreme whenever the scandal comes to mind -- cynicism.
Does one really think Tharoor went just because he was caught being corrupt. There seems to be more to this than meets the eye. The GenNext minister that Tharoor was portraying himself as, will be missed. His clean image may have taken a beating, but political naivette seems more to be his fault than armtwisting a master arm twister like Modi to hand over the bid to Kochi or even armtwisting Rendezvous Sports World to take his friend Sunanda Pushkar on board.
The murky IPL world will throw up more googlies if only the politicians allow it to. But why does one feel that with Tharoor and Pushkar both giving up their stakes, real and imagined, the IPL controversy will blow over. Modi will emerge unscathed and all will be well on the field.

Mcleodganj

Hills, beautiful hills

Barren peaks in the distance

That give way to snow, which like a scoop of vanilla ice garnishes the hills

Peace in the air

Sombre monks in flaming attires

Flowing red robes everywhere bustling about in their dogged pursuit of peace

Blue skies

Fluttering prayer flags

That refuse to be weighed down by the hopes they ferry to the blue skies

Lotus petals

Dragons and heavy metal

Buddha sits on a lotus alongside Bon Jovi and Che looking out of earrings and badges

Tea, hot Tibetan butter tea

Steaming momos

That pave the path to salvation wrapped in gastric juices and needs of existence

Piety, prayer, devotion

Church, temple, monastery

Beckoning to the faithful, to lovers of art and curious explorers of the Self

Mountain trails

Gurgling streams

Long walks through both to lose yourself before a renewed discovery

Silent revolution

Austere penance

Living in a home that never will be home, keeping alive their past to empower their future

Liberty, sovereignty, self-determination

Web of words that keeps struggles alive

And give wings to dreams in distant places and times

Gathering hope,

Beaming them across mountains

To mobilise strength to save Tibet, Free Tibet and spread Peace

Train to austerity derailed?

Is the Congress taking the country for an 'Austerity' ride? Pranab Mukherjee's concerns about the economy may be well-placed, and his suggestions at austere measures may stem from genuine concerns about the country's treasure chest But isn't the party and the media going overboard with the whole campaign?

One wonders if all the hullabulloo about austerity is actually proving quite costly for those involved... The casualties are extending far and wide.

Austerity, ironically, comes at a price. Sometimes, you may end up spending less, while dealing a blow to others around you. At least Rahul Gandhi's train ride from Delhi to Amritsar on a Shatabdi will leave the Indian Railways thinking twice about hosting such elite guests in future.

When Rahul and his PR managers were planning his 'track' record, they may have made room for press photographers taking shots of him, but not arbitrary mischiefmongers taking potshots at him. And least of all, would they have given them credit for such good aim that broke windows of the air/conditioned train.

Now, the railways is stuck with a criticism of the security it provides to passengers, a bill for a broken window pane and some unasked-for publicity.

Some passengers who travelled on the 'un/fortunate' Shatabdi may be gushing at having been able to shake hands with Congress's Prince Charming, but many others may have just been put off by the delay caused by increased security checks, the surge of security personnel at an always crowded public place and so on and so forth.

The Congress may or may not have given much weight to Rashtriya Janata Dal president and Lok Sabha chief wit's comments on a return to the Gandhian way of travel -- and no, here we are not talking about the Gandhis of 10 Janpath, but about travelling general like the Mahatma. One just hopes the party gets over its need to express solidarity with the masses -- or as Shashi Tharoor may put it, the cattle classes -- in this way.

In fact, it may just benefit by practising these measure and not talking about them too much.

May be everyone will take more kindly to the austerity drive if it is not so in-your-face and overhyped. May be this will also fulfill some security requirements of the SPG, which has been having a tough time with Rahul's 'public display of affection' -- expressed sometimes by travelling in the Metro and at others by breaking security cordons to pet a crying child, or simply by taking the Shatabdi.

After all, if you have a price to pay for fame, you also pay the price for austerity instead of making the taxpayer pay for it. And limited publicity to the austerity drive, though it seems like PR harakiri at the outset, may go a longer way in helping the Congress connect with the common man and the common good.

YSR and after

Scenes of outpourings of grief after the death of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) were indeed moving. Men, women, children, of every age and hue lined up in thousands to be part of his funeral procession. People committed suicide, said some newspapers. Many others died of shock. An overwhelming personality YSR must have been to have commanded so much power even in death and after. But the politicisation of grief is another genre altogether.

The Andhra home minister Sabita Indra Reddy went to pay her respects to YSR at the spot where his chopper crashed about a fortnight after his September 2 death. The gritty lady trekked four hours into the dense Nallamala forest to reach the crash site. She apparently went there, paid floral tributes to a portrait of YSR that was especially ferried there and shed copious tears in his memory. To keep her company were some hapless security personnel and government officials.

I seriously wonder what these people think when they do something as unnecessary and avoidable as this. I mean, if she really felt so strongly about going to the site of the accident, she should have just taken off on her own. Or better still, have convinced herself that YSR's spirit would be easily accessible in Hyderabad as in the hillock in Rudrakonda.

What a waste of resources, time, personnel and energy to escort her there, bear testimony to her tearful farewell to her leader and bring her back safely through the forests that are famous Naxal strongholds. Really!!

Such outpourings of grief at the cost of public servants and public funds is a pity.

Better than this seems building temples to honour him!

Villagers in several districts of Andhra Pradesh have come forward to donate money and build temples to worship YSR. Not a surprise, seeing that this is a country where we deify even the living -- after all Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikanth have temples to their credits.

But the most ridiculous bit of sycophancy was to follow. A Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam board member said, for Andhra, there is no God other than YSR.

Am not disputing the devotion the people of the state may have for YSR Nor am I criticisng their hero-worship. But I'd like to know what all the millions who travel miles to pray to Lord Venkateswara at Tirupati every year -- including the Ambanis and Bachchans of this world -- have to say to this TTD trust board member's comment!

May YSR's soul rest in peace, unaffected by and indifferent to all the tamasha being carried out in his name.

Amen