Who do you represent Mr. Prime Minister, India or the USA?

Mr. Prime Minister, extradite Warren Anderson

June 12, 2010

Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh,

Justice delayed is justice denied. Bhopal gas tragedy legal verdict came and went. A few corporate executives of UCIL who were Indian citizens got a slap on the wrist and obtained bails. They got convicted precisely because they were Indian citizens. They would have escaped justice if they were “white skinned, blue-eyed Americans”, just like Mr. Warren Anderson. The fugitive former CEO of Union Carbide against whom a red corner Interpol warrant is still pending was not even tried as both the Government of India and the US Administration ostensibly claim that Anderson’s whereabouts are not known. Justice was not done deliberately.

Justice was not done because of the collusion of the Government of India in a massive cover-up scheme. Justice was not done because of the collusion of the US Administration as both these governments claim that the whereabouts of Warren Anderson are not known! Looks like that Pakistan learned a lesson in obfuscation from the US administration when it claims that the whereabouts of Al Qaeda CEO Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda Managing Director Ayman Al-Zawahiri are not known. There does not seem to be much difference. Al Qaeda killed 3000 people in New York City on 9/11. Union Carbide killed more than 20,000 people in Bhopal City in 1984.

In both cases the perpetrators- in-chief are absconding from justice. In one case the Government of Pakistan has given unofficial shelter, nay, sanctuary to the Al Qaeda terrorists. In other case the US Administration has given a safe haven to Warren Anderson in the plush New York Suburb of Hamptons where Mr. Warren Anderson lives in a $900,000 luxurious home.

Mr. Prime Minister, you want the Indian parliament to pass the “Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill” without further delay to please your American counterparts. You want Indian parliament to sign away the sovereignty of the Indian judicial system to the US and other International nuclear suppliers because the Indian lives are cheap. You want to cap the damages at Rs 500 Crores. How low can you sink, Mr. Prime Minister.

Please remember Mr. Prime Minister the Chernobyl and Three Miles Island Nuclear accidents. The clean-up operations for these nuclear accidents costed billions of dollars. Why don’t you pass a bill with no upper limit caps on damages for the nuclear reactor suppliers? Let the judiciary decide in case of an accident in future. If their nuclear reactors are safe, they will enter into business contracts, if not they will not sign these contracts.

Mr. Prime Minister, please remember that the US department of justice under Obama Administration has already initiated criminal proceedings against the British Petroleum for wrong-doings in the deep sea well oil leak in the gulf of Mexico. The US government wants the BP to pay for the clean-up and all other civil, criminal and environmental damages. Are there going to be two sets of rules for the US and India for industrial accidents? Do you really think that Indian lives are so cheap, Mr. Prime Minister? Who do you represent Mr. Prime Minister, India or the USA?

Before you welcome Barrack Hussain Obama on Indian soil in November 2010, Mr. Prime Minister, get Warren Anderson judicially extradited to India after making a personal intervention with Mr. Obama on telephone. If you can not do this extradition judicially, emulate the Americans and try for an “extra-ordinary rendition” that the US Government has been doing all along with the jihadi terrorists.

If you can not do either of these things, please resign, Mr. Prime Minister as you are a disgrace on Indian sovereignty!

DR. ADITYANJEE
President,
Council for Strategic Affairs,
New Delhi

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