Just dues

If the struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting,then those who seek accounting for the Bhopal gas tragedy have certainly fought a brave struggle. However,their cause has been undercut from many sides. Now,Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan declares himself disappointed in the Central governments handling of the matter and says that the state would set up its own panel to investigate the real dimensions of the tragedy and pinpoint those responsible. Though,a quarter century later,you have to ask: what took him so long?

To the extent that Chouhans panel aims to sift through information and identify rightful claims,it is a creditable effort. But in its attempt to extend victimhood to the 20 wards in New Bhopal declared ineligible by claim tribunals it must be careful of the old error inflating lists and making political profit out of the compensation. Now,at least,anyone with stakes in the matter must commit to a sober assessment of entitlements. This is a moment when public opinion can sway the state,when it appears as though legal and political compromises of the past can finally be admitted and rectified. To squander that intention though a small-minded political tug of war is an insult to those who suffered the consequences in Bhopal.

Successive governments in Madhya Pradesh have been complicit in this process,no matter which the party in power. They have used the Bhopal fund as a way to work their vote,and in the process they have demeaned the real victims and taken away what is rightfully theirs. The claims list was several times larger than the number of those directly affected by the disaster,and kept distending as the years went by. Some of these were legitimate claims the initial lists of the victims were far from thorough,but many of these were the result of competitive populism,which trivialised the compensation process and sold the survivors short. Now that the compensation amount has gone up,it is important that its distribution is sharply targeted.