Bhopal gas tragedy victims write to President, seek probe in Rajiv Gandhi’s role in the escape of Warren Anderson

Adding to problems for the Indian National Congress, ‘Bhopal Gas Peedit Sangarsh Samiti’, in an appeal to the Honorable President, has asked for ‘widespread and scientific’ investigation into the conspiracy alleging the role of Rajiv Gandhi in facilitating the escape of Warren Anderson, who was the chairman of Union Carbide in 1984.

Bhopal Gas Tragedy which saw over 3,700 people losing their lives and more than 5 lakh suffering non-fatal injuries, is counted as one of the worst industrial disasters in the world. The leakage of highly poisonous MIC (methyl isocyanate) from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal in the wee hours of 3^rd December 1984 led to this horrific incident.

The association, in their appeal to the president, writes:

“The demands for the investigations into the role of then PM Rajiv Gandhi and then CM Arjun Singh in facilitating the escape of Warren Anderson, the accused have been continuously made.”

The association letter further reads, “Anderson the accused behind this tragedy was rushed to his country (America), behind which a big conspiracy has always been in discussion, various references relating to the same have also been made in the Indian parliament”

The association has also questioned the relationship between Anderson’s escape and release of Adil Shahryar from American Prison “It has come into the discussion that behind Andersons escape is the release of terror accused Adil Shahryar from an American prison.”

Adil Shahryar was the son of Mohammad Yunus, an Indian civil servant and a close confidant of Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Adil was arrested in August 1981 and tried on charges of attempting to firebomb a ship, false statements, using a firearm and other serious charges. He was granted clemency by President Ronald Reagan on the day Indian Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi visited the US even as he was not eligible for parole until 1991.

The letter finally appealed “We hope that honorable president for the sake of the victims and the nation will order a widespread and scientific investigation into this conspiracy”.

The Bhopal gas tragedy was preceded by multiple incidents which led to the death of several individuals and also injuring many. Many news reports as far as 3 years before the major leak had warned of the impending disaster, the Government however ignoring these warnings had let union Carbide continue its operation. Journalist Rajkumar Keswani in his series of articles  “Bachaiye huzoor is shahar ko bachaiye” (“Save Please, Save This City”), “Jwalamukhi ke muhane baitha Bhopal” (“Bhopal sitting on the brink of a volcano”) ,  and “Na samjhoge to aakhir mit hi jaoge” (“If you don’t understand, you all shall be wiped out”) had warned of the impending disaster.

However, even after multiple red flags, warnings were ignored which lead to the destruction of thousands of families and affected thousands of others in times that followed.