Sunday, June 13, 2010

Modi drags Sonia into Carbide conspiracy

13 Jun 2010, 1805 hrs IST
Just as the government tried to put a lid on the Bhopal gas tragedy case, Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, calls on Congress president Sonia Gandhi to break her silence on the issue.

Borrowing a leaf out of Sonia Gandhi's lexicon, Narendra Modi dared the Congress President to clarify her stand on the Bhopal gas verdict and allegations that the Centre let off Union Carbide Chief Warren Anderson.

Modi asked the Congress President Sonia Gandhi who was the real 'maut ka saudaagar' invoking a refrain used by Sonia Gandhi to describe Modi in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

Modi dragging Sonia Gandhi's name in the conspiracy said, "Madam Soniaji, the country wants to know. Break your silence and tell the country who was the merchant of death who is responsible for the thousands of lives in Bhopal. Soniaji speak up and tell the country what exactly happened?. Such a huge tragedy happened. And they are just passing the blame on each other."

Spokesperson of the Congress, Jayanti Natarjan, reacting on Modi dragging the name of Sonai Gandhi into the Bhopal gas tragedy issue said, "Modi practises a morally and intellectually bankrupt and low politics. There is no need for him to drag Sonia Gandhi's name into it. He practises a divisive and disruptive politics. GoM is looking into the matter."

It was in December 2007 that Congress President Sonia Gandhi had accused the Gujarat government for failing to check terrorism during the BJP tenure.

Sonia Gandhi earlier speaking on BJP leaders and Gujarat said, "BJP leaders talk about tackling terrorism, but isn't it true that under their leadership attacks have happened from Jammu's Raghunath Mandir to Akshardham. Not only this, under their foreign minister, terrorists have been freed from Indian jails and sent to Afghanistan? The truth is that Gujarat Government comprises of dishonest and corrupt leaders who are merchants of death."

BJP asks Cong to come clean on Anderson issue

Pressure mounts on Congress leader and the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Arjun Singh to break his silence on allowing Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson to flee the country as senior Congress leaders dismissed any role of Rajiv Gandhi in it.

Arjun Singh, who was Madhya Pradesh chief minister in 1984 when the Bhopal Gas tragedy shook the state, maintained a stoic silence, refusing to speak to the media.

Arjun Singh was Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh when poisonous methyl isocyanate leaked from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984 killing over 15,000 people and maiming several others.

Battling charges over escape of Warren Anderson days after the Bhopal tragedy, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today sought to give a new spin on the issue, saying Arjun Singh took the decision on then Union Carbide CEO's exit keeping in view the law and order situation.

With the Congress on the backfoot, the BJP asked it to come clean on its role in allegedly providing safe passage to then Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson after the Bhopal gas disaster in 1984 and demanded that it apologise to the nation.

The BJP demanded that the Congress disclose the individual's name who had ordered the release of Anderson from police custody in Bhopal on December 7, 1984 and facilitated his travel to Delhi by a state plane.

A Bhopal court has on June 8 convicted ex-Union Carbide India Chairman Keshub Mahindra and six others and sentenced them to two years imprisonment, nearly 26 years after world's worst industrial disaster left over 15,000 dead.

The state government has constituted a five-member committee under the chairmanship of Additional Solicitor General Vivek Tankha to look into the trial court judgement and examine all legal aspects including any fresh evidence.

The people of Bhopal have been suffering due to leakage of lethal Methyl iso-cyanate (MIC) gas from the Union Carbide plant in December 1984.

In the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination, the anti-Sikh riots and Rajiv's taking over as PM came the Bhopal tragedy. And a general election was just ahead. Arjun Singh, meanwhile, did the obvious in arresting Anderson but the chap obtained bail. The point is, after obtaining bail, it was the same Arjun Singh who facilitated his departure to Delhi. It was not as if Anderson had to make his own arrangements after the bail. The bail application was not opposed by the government. This indicates that after his arrest, Arjun Singh received instructions to take measures to release Anderson. Such an instruction could not have come from anyone else than Rajiv Gandhi. America did not, obviously, want one of its senior corporate heads languishing in an Indian jail and would have contacted Rajiv for his intervention. Rajiv must have seen it as an opportunity to be in the good books of America and set in motion the freedom of Anderson. The man who justified the attacks on Sikhs which caused the death of thousands with his comment, "When a big tree falls, the ground around shakes" also gave the call to free a man responsible for the death of thousands in Bhopal. Rajiv Gandhi, it is now becoming clear, was a "Maut-ki-Saudagar".

http://www.timesnow.tv/articleshow/4347335.cms

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