Sympathized with those responsible for the death of 15 thousand Indians, yearned for compensation to the victims, Henry Kissinger’s controversial link to Bhopal Gas Tragedy 1984

Bhopal city of Madhya Pradesh, India is known for its connectivity and beauty. It is said that every beautiful thing has a stain somewhere. The moon also has a stain. Similarly, something has happened on the land of Bhopal which probably cannot be forgotten for centuries. A terrible industrial accident occurred in Bhopal on the night of 3 December 1984. Around 8000 people died immediately due to this incident and after this, news of people dying due to its impact continued for three-four weeks. Overall, about 15 thousand people lost their lives in this accident. In fact, a poisonous gas leaked from the factory of an American company named Union Carbide located in Bhopal and it spread throughout the city. People around the company died immediately but most of the people died gradually after the poisonous air spread. Many people became victims of various types of physical disabilities, including blindness. In the Bhopal gas tragedy, a poisonous gas called methylisocyanate (MIC) was leaked. Which was used to make pesticides. Years have passed since this incident happened, but the strings of this incident were linked to an American man who died on November 30. American diplomat Henry Kissinger died on November 30 at the age of 100. Let us tell you how this person, who is called India’s enemy number one, saved those responsible for the Bhopal incident.

Because of this American man, the victims of Bhopal incident searched for justice for years.

Master of Realpolitik America’s legendary diplomat Henry Kissinger navigated the treacherous currents of international relations with Machiavellian cunning, leaving behind a trail of covert operations and covert dealings.

In one such deal, Kissinger played a controversial role in shielding the American chemical company Union Carbide from legal liability after the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy and used his cunning to keep victims still in the courts for adequate compensation.

bhopal tragedy 1984

In 1984, the leak of poisonous methyl isocyanate gas from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal on the intervening night of 2 and 3 December took the lives of more than 15000 people and affected more than 1 lakh people. Soon after the gas leak, there was chaos and destruction in the Madhya Pradesh capital. Thousands of residents’ eyes were stinging and their lungs were gasping for breath. People left their homes. The city’s hospitals were overwhelmed with patients suffering from respiratory illnesses, skin burns and blindness. The death toll continued to rise in the days following the tragedy. The exact death toll remains a controversial issue, with estimates ranging from 15,000 to a staggering 25,000.

Who was responsible for the Bhopal tragedy 1984?

Union Carbide Chairman Warren Anderson was also among those arrested. However, Anderson was released on $2,000 bail on a promise to return. After this, the Indian government filed a claim for damages of $ 3.3 billion against Union Carbide in the US court.

Kissinger Union Carbide Connect

Kissinger’s consulting firm Kissinger Associates took on Union Carbide as a client after the disaster and lobbied on their behalf for years. A letter written by Indian industrialist JRD Tata to then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1988 highlights Kissinger’s deep concerns regarding lengthy compensation negotiations for victims of the disaster. Tata said Kissinger thought Union Carbide was prepared to make a “fair and generous settlement” that would “effectively counter any attacks or criticism” because it exceeded the sums offered by the Indian courts.

Henry Kissinger’s connections revealed

Tata said Dr. Henry Kissinger, who is a key member of the committee and a good friend of mine, is, as you may know, an adviser and consultant to many governments and large corporations, including Union Carbide in the US. He told me about him and them. He has his own concerns over the long delay in reaching agreement on the amount of compensation to be paid to the victims of the Bhopal disaster.

In February 1989, after 24 days of intense legal deliberations, the Supreme Court ordered Union Carbide to make a final payment of $470 million. Tata said “Public opinion, he (Kissinger) thought, would strongly support such an agreement because it would not only give the victims the very generous compensation for which they had waited so long, but it would also give them In this case, to protect American corporate interests, particularly Union Carbide and its current parent organization Dow Chemicals, the US government has obstructed justice for the Bhopal disaster victims by shielding these corporations from accountability. .

The $470 million settlement was widely condemned as woefully inadequate in addressing the sheer scale of the tragedy and its lasting impact on affected communities. The most obvious flaw of the agreement was the dropping of all charges against Union Carbide and its managers, although this was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1991. However, Anderson never actually reached the Indian court and died in 2014 at the age of 92 in the picturesque town of Vero Beach, Florida. JRD Tata’s letter is particularly important in that it exposes the collusion of the US government and Kissinger in giving far less money than the victims of the Bhopal disaster and the generation that came after them.