Death’s Disguise: Erasing Guilt or Etching Legacy?

We have often heard the physically and metaphorically accurate line "you can't change the past." Yet, as we scrutinize history and its mobile narratives with an altered perspective of morally grey characters, sometimes recast as heroes, and a blackhole of events hiding in the historic bushes, we encounter a paradox. Maybe we have always been consumers of the shadowed past. History is known to steer a villain clear of their crimes, whitewash it or hide beneath the shadows of selective memory. John F Kennedy, Charles Dickens, Emily Dickinson, F Scott Fitzgerald are all examples of the same phenomena. Another name that was given a leeway despite being at the crux of cowardice was Warren Anderson.

Warren M Anderson (November 29, 1921 – September 29, 2014) was an American businessman who was the chair and CEO of the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) at the time of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy in 1984. To put the catastrophe in perspective, at least 3,787 people were killed by the gas release, and over 500,000 were injured the night methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. According to estimates, about 600,000 people were exposed to the gas while the death toll over the years is estimated to have reached 15,000 people however these numbers were never verified. This figure, is almost the same as the population of Maldives, and all it took was one night. Till date, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy has not lost its spot as one of the worst industrial disasters to ever occur.

When the disaster struck, Anderson was ordered to remain in India to face investigation. But justice bent under the weight of power. He was swiftly bailed out, and the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Arjun Singh, facilitated his release and escape, reportedly under the orders of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Before leaving, Anderson was granted residence in the most prestigious official bungalow in Bhopal—an insult to those gasping for breath in its streets. Soon after, he was quietly escorted to a safe flight home, where he lived the rest of his days untouched by consequence.

UCC paid the Indian government a compensation of $470mn. However, the compensation never appropriately reached the citizens, the grief never left the families and the trauma still breathes. Decades later, Bhopal's land and water remain poisoned. Miscarriages, birth defects, and cancer have become cruelly normalized within the tragedy’s radius. What endured was not justice, but the stark reality of unchecked privilege; privilege that let a man responsible for thousands of deaths live peacefully till the age of 92, unburdened by accountability, surrounded by wealth and the only constraint in his life being freedom.

The disaster continues

This incident was not an isolated instance of UCC conveniently compromising security and slipping into safety. The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster, the Nitrogen asphyxiation incident are among some known "accidents" resulting into zero consequences for the corporation. Warren M Anderson serves as a clear example of "Banana Republic". According to Wikipedia, a Banana Republic is a country with an economy of state capitalism, where the country is operated as a private commercial enterprise for the exclusive profit of the ruling class. "I think I've seen this film before, and I didn't like the ending". In this recurring narrative, power, wealth, freedom, and impunity always belong to the same side of a rigged coin.. Despite being declared a fugitive by Indian courts and facing multiple arrest warrants, including a non-bailable warrant in 1992, the U.S. government refused to extradite him. In 2010, an Indian court convicted seven Indian officials from Union Carbide’s Indian subsidiary, sentencing them to a mere two years in prison, but Anderson remained untouched. He never apologized to the victims, never faced trial, and never paid a personal price for the catastrophe.

Some allege that the easy release of Warren Anderson was a quid pro quo for Rajiv Gandhi to secure bail for his childhood friend Adil Shahryar, who was serving a 35-year prison sentence in the U.S. We will never know if this fallacy holds any truth, but what we do know is that the citizens were the least of the administration's concerns. What did concern them, though, was the inconvenience of a man who chose to slip through the cracks of accountability. A semi valid argument would be calling the idea of one man facing the brunt of a multinational corporation unfair as there are managements associates on every level. But, in this case it would only be as valid as agreeing that the government plays no role in communal violence today.

We look for happy endings. If not happy, we look for conclusive endings. History is not merely written; it is curated, manipulated, and, at times, deliberately erased. The Bhopal tragedy stands as a haunting reminder that justice is often a privilege, not a principle. Unfortunately, the very non fictional tale of Bhopal has neither a conclusion, nor a happy ending. People still suffer, and the antagonist lived happily ever after. In the end, history may choose to forget, but Bhopal will never stop whispering the truth.