Who asked Arjun Singh to free Anderson? Rajiv Gandhi?

Arjun Singh was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh when the Bhopal gas tragedy occurred in 1984. It was he who arranged a state police car to rush Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson to the Bhopal airport and gave him a state plane to fly him to Delhi.

Here are some of them who betrayed the Bhopal gas victims and the collective conscience of india:

Suspect Number 1, Arjun Singh: He was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh when the Bhopal gas tragedy happened on the night of 2-3 December, 1984. Unless he had given specific instructions, how could Anderson have got a plane to flee to Delhi and then to the US.

According to The Indian Express, on December 7, 1984, Anderson spent a few uncomfortable hours in the company's Research and Development Centre on the picturesque Shymla Hills near Bhopal. He had been arrested from the airport and taken there, four days after the world's worst industrial disaster.

"He was taken aback when we told him that he was under arrest," said Moti Singh who was then Bhopal Collector. He recalled how the Anderson landed at the airport casually with a gas mask in hand.

But a couple of hours later, the state and Central governments went the extra mile to make him feel comfortable and arranged a bail of Rs 25,000. Anderson had been charged with culpable homicide, a charge which was later diluted.

According to Rajkumar Keswani, one of the first journalists to break the gas leakage story, it was Singh who allowed use of the government plane after receiving a call from Delhi.

Who called Arjun Singh from Delhi and gave instructions to go soft on Anderson? Moti Singh too says that there was a call from Delhi to free Anderson. Who was the mysterious caller? Rajiv Gandhi had become prime minister only weeks earlier following Indira Gandhi's assassination.

Who asked Arjun Singh to free Anderson? Rajiv Gandhi?

Arjun Singh, now 80, received instructions from Delhi to free Anderson. Who called him up? From the urgency seen in Bhopal, it looks like the call came from the highest authority – the Prime Minister's Office. Rajiv Gandhi was then the PM.

Once the message reached Arjun Singh, he rushed in and made sure that the authorities treated Anderson well and was released without delay. A magistrate was taken to the Union Carbide guest house, he was granted bail just four hours after his arrest and then he was taken in a police car to the airport where a state plane was waiting to take Anderson to Delhi.

Considering the haste and urgency with which Arjun Singh acted, it is obvious that the call from Delhi was from the highest authority - the Prime Minister's office. So, was it Rajiv Gandhi?

In fact, senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Vasant Sathe has admitted that there was a "collusion" between the Madhya Pradesh government and "some people" in the Centre which allowed former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson to escape justice in the Bhopal gas tragedy.

According to Agency reports, Sathe, former minister for Information and Broadcasting and Chemicals and Fertilisers, said on Thursday, "There was a collusion between the state government and some people in the central government, probably in the Home Ministry" during the Narasimha Rao government.

Asked who could be responsible for the escape of Anderson, Sathe said he could not guess the names of the people but claimed only the then Chief Minister Arjun Singh could reply to queries on this issue.

"I cannot guess the names of the people...The collector (Moti Singh) says he got orders from the Chief Secretary...Arjun Singh ji knows all the facts. The best person for the media to direct these queries would be Arjun Singh ji," the octogenarian leader said.

Who asked Arjun Singh to free Anderson? Rajiv Gandhi?

It was a mysterious call from Delhi that freed Anderson who flew to Delhi, had tea with the then president Giani Zail Singh and then fled from India, never to return. Was Rajiv Gandhi involved?

He said that instead of doing an exercise in vacuum, the media should direct questions to Singh to get authentic information on the Anderson issue.

"After all, he (Anderson) was given the state government plane from Bhopal to Delhi. Obviously there were some people (in Bhopal and Delhi who were responsible)" Sathe said.

Sathe said there were "rogue" elements in the government in 1984 who helped Anderson flee the country after the Bhopal tragedy.

The then CBI director K Vijay Rama Rao has thrown a hint when he admitted recently that the Americans were blocking the extradition. So was it Washington that put pressure on Rajiv Gandhi to let Anderson off the hook and allow him to leave the country?

Brahma Swaroop, the then Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary. He allegedly called up the Collector to inform him that a plane was waiting at the airport for Anderson to be taken to Delhi.

Will Swaroop tell the nation under whose instructions did he call the collector.

Who asked Arjun Singh to free Anderson? Rajiv Gandhi?

The Bhopal gas tragedy was the worst industrial mishap in the world. Yet, the government of India did not deal with it in all seriousness.

Moti Singh, the collector, said he never questioned his boss because "he was a man of few words and would not have liked it."

"The chief secretary summoned me to his chamber in secretariat and said that Mr Anderson was to be released and sent to Delhi by a plane which was awaiting him at the airport," claims Moti Singh according to CNNIBN.

The Congress: Apart from explaining who called up Arjun Singh and instructed him to release Anderson and provide him a plane, the Congress party will also have to explain how a man accused of killing 15,000 people and injuring thousands in the world's worst industrial disaster had tea with the then President Giani Zail Singh once he landed in Delhi.

Here too, the Prime Minister's office is suspect. Without PMO's nod, Anderson could never have stepped into the Rashtrapathi Bhavan and had tea with the president.

Consider this: Will the CEO of British Petroleum, the company behind the massive oil spill threatening the US court, ever have a coffee meet with President Barack Obama? That would be Obama's last day in office.

Who asked Arjun Singh to free Anderson? Rajiv Gandhi?

The Bhopal tragedy killed over 15000 people and injured thousands.

The CBI: The role of the CBI has never been above the water marks of controversy in the Bhopal gas case. BR Lall, the CBI officer investigating the case in 1995 when Narasimha Rao was the prime minister, has openly come out and claimed that it was the Ministry of External Affairs that had written to the CBI asking them not to pursue Anderson's extradition.

"It (note not to pursue Anderson's case) originated from External Affairs Ministry and then to it came to us. I don't know at what level the decision was taken," Lall claims

Though the claim has been denied by Lall's boss and the then CBI director K Vijay Rama Rao, the matter needs a second look as Lall claims that there was documentary evidence in this regard.

Justice A H Ahmadi: It was Justice A H Ahmadi who in 1996 reduced the criminal charges from Section 304, culpable homicide that would have attracted 10 years in jail to that of Section 304A - causing death due to negligence - that could attract just 2 years in jail for killing over 15,000 people.

Citing laws and rules, would the Supreme Court in the US let the officials of BP off the hook?

Now fresh evidence shows that Justice Ahmadi heads a trust that gets funds from Union Carbide.


Who asked Arjun Singh to free Anderson? Rajiv Gandhi?

Hitting out at former Chief Justice of India A H Ahmadi for a 1996 ruling in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, an NGO working for the victims of the world's worst industrial disaster on Thursday said the judge was as big a "villain" as former Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson, report Agencies.

"There is not much difference between Ahmadi and Anderson and the two should be put in the same category of villains," Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangthan (BGPMUS) convenor Abdul Jabbar said.

In a 1996 Supreme Court ruling in the gas tragedy case, the then apex court chief justice Ahmadi dropped charges under IPC Section 304-II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) against Anderson and other accused in the case.

Had the charges not been dropped, the accused could have been given an imprisonment of 10 years instead of only two years, awarded to them on Monday, Jabbar said.

The verdict has came under attack from all sections of society, including civil rights activists, political parties and Indian film industry, following which the government constituted a GoM to go into range of issues concerning the disaster.

Who asked Arjun Singh to free Anderson? Rajiv Gandhi?

However, Ahmadi had rejected criticism of dilution of charge against Union Carbide executives in the case and had said in criminal law there was no concept of vicarious liability.

Jabbar said Ahmadi is now the chairman of the Bhopal Memorial Hospital which was set up on Supreme Court's direction with money given by Union Carbide.

The hospital is not in good shape now as five of its 16 departments had been closed down and around 300 staffers, including doctors, had left it for various reasons, Jabbar alleged.

So, instead of chasing Anderson, let Arjun Singh, the Congress party, the district magistrate, the officers who investigated the Bhopal gas case and the CBI come out in the open. Like in the days of kings and queens, let the traitors be tried first, not Anderson. Traitors can let down the nation many times, criminals like Anderson only once.

Who asked Arjun Singh to free Anderson? Rajiv Gandhi?

Arjun singh, now 80 years old, and a man bitter with the COngress high command, has so far refused to come out and speak on the controversies. Captain Jaipal Singh, the then minister in charge of general administration and publicity, says he doesn't remember what really happened in the world's worst industrial tragedy.

"I was deputy minister but I can't recollect," Captain Jaipal Singh was quoted in the media.

Officials who were in decision-making positions in 1984 are unwilling to throw more light on how Anderson was allowed to go. Many of them have died, and those who are alive, prefer not to speak out.

It would be difficult to get Anderson extradited from the US. This is because the law in the US says that there should be evidence to show that Anderson was directly involved in the gas leakage. In short, India should prove that Anderson was on the shop floor of the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal and that he was operating the tank from which the leakage occurred!!

Mr Moily, how on earth are you going to catch Anderson?
Comment: Had the gas tragedy happened in US or China


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