IT was quite revealing of the US double standards when it cold-shouldered demands from the Indian public and opposition parties for the extradition of the former Union Carbide chief executive officer, Mr Warren Anderson while it lost no time in subjecting the British Petroleum chief executive officer,
Mr Tony Hayward to a scathing criticism by the US Congress on the oil spill from one of their rigs in the Gulf of Mexico affecting life along the Gulf in the two states of Alabama and Lousiana. Congressmen of both Republican and Democratic parties angrily grilled Mr Hayward despite his fervent plea that he was "out of the loop" on decisions at the well. The US was ready to accept similar argument from Mr Anderson who said the gas leak in the Union Carbide Bhopal factory was the responsibility of the Indian subsidiary, and the US parent company of which he was the chief executive, had nothing to do with it.
Testifying as oil still surged into the Gulf of Mexico and coated ever more coastal land and marshes, Mr Hayward declared "I am so devastated with this accident," "deeply sorry" and "so distraught." He disclaimed knowledge of any of the myriad problems on and under the Deepwater Horizon rig before the deadly explosion, telling the congressional hearing he had only heard about the well earlier in April, the month of the accident, when the BP drilling team told him it had found oil. "With respect, sir, we drill hundreds of wells a year around the world," Mr Hayward told Republican Congressman, Mr Michael Burgess of Texas. "Yes, I know," Mr Burgess shot back. "That’s what’s scaring me right now." One Republican member told Mr Hayward: "I think you’re copping out. You’re the captain of the ship." "BP blew it," said another Congressman. "You cut corners to save money and time." The verbal onslaught had been anticipated for days and unfolded at a nearly relentless pace.
And here in the Bhopal case in 1984 — and for more than 25 years since then — we have the political parties, starting with the Congress, not doing anything to uphold the respect of the nation and the concerns of Indians by summoning Mr Warren Anderson to any hearing. We have instead gone on record that Mr Anderson was given a safe passage by the Rajiv Gandhi government; he was allowed to come into the country, go to Bhopal, and fly out of the devastated city under police protection on the same day, and then out of the country. That was nothing but bowing down to the power of a multinational and the powers of the superpower America. India would rather let thousands die and lakhs be sick by the gas leak than invite the anger of multinationals and Americans.
Bhopal was the worst industrial disaster in history. But when America’s worst environmental disaster takes place as oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the US President, Mr Barack Obama leads the country in strongly criticising BP’s chief executive, Mr Tony Hayward. In an interview with NBC, Mr Obama was asked about comments Mr Hayward made in the wake of the disaster, such as "I want my life back" and the Gulf is "a big ocean". Mr Obama said: "He wouldn’t be working for me after any of those statements." He said he had visited the Louisiana coast "so I know whose ass to kick". Mr Obama used the interview to defend his role in dealing with the crisis. Polls suggest that many Americans think he has handled the disaster poorly. The US President has made three visits to the oil-hit coast since the disaster started in late April, talking to fishermen and oil spill experts.
"I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers - so I know whose ass to kick," he said. Mr Obama said he was committed to seeing the Gulf region restored to a condition better than it was before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank on 20 April, killing 11 workers. The leaking wellhead is currently spewing out between 12,000 and 24,000 barrels of oil per day. Some 11,000 barrels of oil are being trapped by a containment cap. Contrast this with the situation in Bhopal where the Union Carbide factory is still there in a state which poses dangers to the population. There is a clean-up waiting to be done, but it seems nobody’s responsibility.
