Bhopal & Beyond-PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION ,Supreme Court Of India.

The statistics are an aberration to quantify liabilities in nations afflicted by hunger, poverty, unemployment and governmental sanctified proof of their existences substantiating if ever there be any claims for their mysterious disappearances. If at all they do, then these are figures juggled by the most skillful of defendants to excuse themselves of their very liability to cough up the coffers and in situations of corporate abuse laced with the violators of a legal persona and the story mired in political filth and the stench of lackadaisical administrative non performance, the concoction proves even more lethal than the most quizzical yet boring judgment pronounced by any court of law. Imperative questions raised are nevertheless profound but for the lack of institution of any rights in even the simplest of common parlance makes merely a mockery of the entire process. It spells more so the pronouncements of a failed state. Hopefully, we would not be in contempt given our trust in the judiciary, the administration and the legislature failing not we assume that collectively they comprise the Union Of India. Bhopal has not remained an isolated case of corporate abuse anymore than of its greed of repeatedly throwing up greater figures to those already seeking ailment since the last two decades and more. Many have perished, more than that have permanent impairments and the rest are presumably groping with the idea of uncertainty between development and arrested development in the threshold of an idea which keeps one guessing the possibilities of getting repeatedly abused under the guise of compensation. Compensation that has been bargained as never before and sought to be returned too in like manner for having bridged the divide between commission and non commission of a crime. By the most skillful of lawyers, policy makers, organisations and Judges it has been hounded supposedly to the minutest of details and in any other developing or developed nation, it would have been catastrophic for the bourses.A crime of such a magnitude deserves not reasoning but action inspite of everything gone horribly wrong the night of 2 nd and 3rd December 1984 and of course beyond remains irreversible. The manifestations of the night sealed the fate of the victims and accounted for greater responsibility on the part of the State as the guardian of the rights of its effected populace in the grandeur definition of a social welfare state and hence its representation as parens patriae for the hapless souls in the United States District Court, S.District of New York seeking a claim of 3.3 billion dollars instantly after the incident. The objection by Union Carbide Corporation of forum non-conveniens was acceded to be Judge Keenan. Law Suit thrown out of the U.S Court, recourse lay only in filing a claim before the District Court at Bhopal by the Union Of India .The order for Rupees 350 crores as interim compensation was fiercely contested by Union Carbide India Limited to be reduced to Rupees 250 crores.Both parties interestingly enough went in appeals separately. Union Carbide Corporation’s stake in UCIL was 51% and not approximately 50 % as made to appear at several instances and further sold to McLeod Russell India Limited named Eveready Industries India later. Union Carbide’s presence in India had however been much before the Bhopal Plant selling whole lot of products and mostly batteries and a 100% subsidiary of Dow Chemicals, Transition Sub Inc. merging with UCC, Dow Chemicals as on date owns the Bhopal plant ; certainly its liabilities in as good a capacity as it inherited the assets. While strangely enough the permission of the court allows such plethora of transactions and sabotage ,more precisely possible sabotage as made out by the defendants have however been never proved. Willful negligence paramount, liability in tort becomes a very precarious position in accounting liability. Broadly enough, there are indisputably civil and criminal liability. If theoretically, civil offences were to as great a substitute that their redressal could override penal action, all woes in cash rich and even cash strapped worlds would be over and a precondition that agreeing into agreements in the nature of settlements towards compensation would absolve them of contesting any proceedings that may be brought against the offender at later stages and more importantly that those subsisting whether civil or criminal would be quashed and not even kept at abeyance, the rule of law and principles of natural justice would succumb at the altar of such grotesque juridical developments. The situation worsens when the exact magnitude of the loss cannot be calculated to calculate liability towards even payment of compensation.Moribidity factor of course subsisting, the element of manifestation in future victims accounts to a mind boggling scenario seeking expensive medical interventions, speciality medical aid, rehabilitation on all possible fronts and most importantly, the continuity of aid more so in the scenario of newly appointed successors of the ghastly plant read UCIL. Their inheritance is not merely to the plant or even say tank 610 but the environmental aspect that supports life and complements humanitarian aid and most importantly their liabilities under international tort law with principles of precation, precautionary principle and polluter pays principle laid down in very clear terms towards due adherence by the Honourable Supreme Court presently monitoring the various remedial aspects of the tragedy. The case against union carbide in its various forms is far from over and piercing the corporate veil would be the least of the urgencies notwithstanding the very revision by the court of the decision and modality of permitting the sale with the matter sub judice and in the absence of any sort of finality in the conclusiveness of proceedings. Phosgene gas in reaction with monomethylamine produced methyl isocyanate and methyl isocyanate made to react with alpha napthol produces the insecticide Sevin or MIC-Methyl Isocyanate which if it comes in contact with droplets of water or ounces of metal dust releases a fatal gas into the atmosphere. It was to be therefore kept under near zero temperature. Under influence of heat, it broke down into several molecules including hydrocyanide acid whose antidote sodium thiosulphate was never disclosed asmuch as its effect under situations of extreme temperature ,more so heat. The plant was to be equipped with decontamination apparatus and flares to neutralize or burn it in case of accidental leakage while one of the primary safety regulations prohibited the storage of phosgene when not in production though ascertainment of phosgene and monomethaylamine were the prerequisites of the preparation of MIC unlike the practice in its U.S plant. The technical knowledges patented in the U.S have been later sold to corporations including Reliance though Indian Oil revoked the contract at a later stage. The compensation amounts stated to have been meted out in the official site are as per figures reached during the settlement stage pronounced to be such. As on 1989/90, the figures furnished were 155203 towards no injury out of a total of 361966 medical folders prepared and 358712 of these evaluated. Temporary disability on account of permanent injury at 1313 ,Permanent total disability pegged at 40 and deaths to be at the exact figure of 3824 seems quite unacceptable and is far from the actual figures inspite of the court having made provisions for latent manifestation under the law of toxic tort. The amounts realized interestingly enough for the compensations claimed would have to be weighted against proceeds. An escrow account would have to be in its entirety till the pendency of litigation where liability importantly is being endeavored to be calculated and identified against the severest of civil and criminal offences involving culpable homicide. A conveyed position that in the midst of uncertainty where no charges have been filed by the trial court and extradition sought from the government of the American officials in charge of the companies affairs on that fateful night merely ridicules the position of the State in trying to emerge as the upholder of the basic fundamental rights of its citizenry. While the ministry of chemical and fertilizers in 2005 filed an application in the High Court of M.P to direct Dow Chemicals to pay an advance of rupees 100 crores as part of the polluter pays principle and the Prime Minister promises a delegation to be dishonoured later that action against Dow Chemicals would be intiated,Dow Chemicals seeking to be absolved of their legal liability and consenting towards clean up of the plant and its immediate surroundings; there is little that has been even endeavored to be achieved. As per ICMR figures, there were 23000 dead and 7000 to 10000 killed within 72 hours of the toxic release and 40 tonnes of MIC and other gases released as per the corporation’s own figures. The Walk From Bhopal for the second time for the 50 odd protestors having been of little consequence to seek an audience with the Prime Minister some of them suffering from ailments themselves though of sufficient ability aided by the perseverance to fructify their endless struggle till date, the courts however for their part could rise to the occasion. The Indian mindset has been reared on the mindset of seeking judicial interventions and the very courts that have settled issues with their variance of agreements and disagreements, a larger constitutional bench certainly should not be in conflict or be disrespectful to the earlier judgments of the honourable apex court. Admittedly it is seeking more than the courts themselves would ever seek but empathy arising out of the present dire situation when all hope has been lost and little achieved so far, alleviation of suffering of a people who have not had much recourse from the very beginning, a judicial intervention in the modality of appropriate adjudication certainly should not be an impossible feat more so for the demands yet to be satiated and those born after those initial dreadful years.While the present write up finds its way to the Honourable Supreme Court for redressal and there has been a leakage of Chlorine gas at the Tata Motors plant at Jamshedpur and a Chlorine infection unlike its well acquainted term has little to its aid in the form of some antidote,innumerable people have been admitted to the hospitals.Strangely enough released the same day, a visit four days later, the air was still pungent and a vomit on the way back with a sore throat a remembrance for the day, theres an air of uncertainty of how corporate India even after two decades and more since the Bhopal tragedy and all these years since India’s independence reacts.Incidentally it was Ratan Tata himself who as head of the Indo-U.S Forum has publicly made it well known in the corridors of power that be that Dow Chemicals should be absolved of the civil and criminal liabilities.Those however in the United States Of America are more responsible and in the corporate history of the U.S no mishap or sabotage however one might quote it to be to suit ones interests, has been taken down lying.The offenders have been certainly taken to task and propaganda in whichever disguise for ones own subservient interest banned by a nation which has instilled its trust in God even it were to seem that for some,He were to only reside there. THE PRESENT WRITE UP IS MOST HUMBLY SOUGHT TO BE TREATED AS A PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION BY THE HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA AND HIS COMPANION JUDGES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA. THE PROTESTORS AT JANTAR MANTAR SINCE THE LAST 100 DAYS AND MORE ARE MERELY AN INSIGHT INTO THE NIGHT THAT UNFOLDED IN 1984 AND THAT WHICH THEY HAVE ENDURED SINCE 1984.THEY ARE SEEKING AN AUDIENCE WITH THE PRIME MINISTER AND HAVE TABLED THEIR DEMANDS.THE ONLY RESPONSE THEY HAVE RECEIVED SO FAR IS DESPAIR AND DENIAL.THE GROUP OF MINISTERS ,A COMMISSION AND A LEGISLATION BESIDES THE BARE NECESSITIES OF WATER AND A SIMPLEST OF ALL LIVELYHOOD IS STILL A FAR CRY AWAY WHILE THE FINAL FIGURES WHICH EVERY NEW BIRTH OF A DEFORMED CHILD THROWS UP IS BECOMING COLLOSAL BY THE DAY.LEGAL ACTION AGAINST DOW AND UNION CARBIDE STRANGE AS IT MAY SOUND AFTER ALL THESE YEARS STILL REMAINS OUR FOREMOST DEMAND. Post the afore-submission,mentioned briefly in the covering letter to The Hon'ble Chief Justice Of India,protestors and survivors including children and women were mercilessly beaten up by the police.the women strip searched,children as young as six years old have been bruised,physically assaulted and the ratio of twenty policemen to an individual in striking the blows occurring,they have been further sent to Tihar Jail on judicial custody.Bail provisions on grounds of morality have purposly not been availed of and living conditions of the protestors and survivors are as abysmal as they can ever get.A section of congressmen and parliamentarians in the U.S and U.K have however written to Manmohan Singh expressing their anguish at such developments in a nation which is aspiring to be amongst the developed world.

wayfarer

drizzle of the season; the cry of the howler

break open the skies; in the torrid face of civilization

stares go stark in the naked morning; when all things thirsty

split wide open; another beginning

another life; for us all to still hang on

and observe the stillness; of the brewing mind.

Fine Arts

The artist as a medium complements our natural behaviour and nature's boutiful ways of expressing itself in the innate behaviour of the existence of the universality of beings.matter as it exists is a riddle itself which is yet to be solved.while science concretises assumptions, observance furthers the need and purpose for existence.our universe as it exsts in the sum total of forces that beckon the sun from setting and moon rising, the mysteries are offered for man to understand from time immemorial.while fine arts in its multitude of forms which dictated alongside the schools of art, their form of expression the reflection of man's innate nature from depicting scenic beauty to the commissioning of works, from being a substitute for the technological capturing of moments to filling canvasses with the perceived objects;life in the real art unfolded itself.it served the purpose of the day, the creator and ultimately the creation.celluloid depictions for what dreams may come is only the beginning of the possibility of recreating the notions between black and white and lust for life endevours to hammer the last nail in the coffin of time.McLean recreates the being, Vincent goes under the hammer and i for one relive the former thriough the eyes of the latter.behold the beauty that mesmerises man,behold the hand that recreates beauty and behold the force that flows through the spirit of the artist to reveal itself.time surpasses ages and ages transcend to beautify our innerselves where time stands still and spring is everywhere.

time passages

the night passes by, i know not why;
the sun shines yet , and evening sets cry;
aloud for you, and quitely for me;
your land of silence, and mine of shame;
rise up again, for i know now why;
thats uprising for you, and alas you sigh;
love at the threshold,love at the maze;
love for the creature, who bore us well;
into the night, and out of the day;
where the sun sets yet and night crawls by;
though this i do not know why;
the path you tread, the prints you leave;
leave me perplexed, into the soaring sky;
where wings beat faster, and my heart could die;
for in your realm of the subtle might, i utter a silent cry;
for glory and god, you shine my love;
for eternity and ever,in that silent night;
the dove sails by,where even you could never really say why.

VICTIMS OF A CIVILIZATION

IN CASE WE ARE MISSING THE POINT,HERES WHERE THE END BEGINS.