Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson was given a “safe passage” in 1984, following a decision taken in a day by the home ministry and the Cabinet secretary, the then foreign secretary M.K. Rasgotra disclosed on Thursday, adding a new twist to the raging controversy over the Bhopal gas tragedy.
“I got in touch with the home ministry and I got in touch with the Cabinet secretary. I told them what Gordon Streeb (the then deputy chief of the US mission here) had asked for and I waited for the instructions,” Mr Rasgotra said following a request from the US embassy categorically asking for a safe passage for Anderson.
His comments came on the eve of the meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) to discuss various aspects of the fallout of the Bhopal court verdict in the gas tragedy case.
On its part, the Congress skirted questions on the then Congress government’s involvement on the Anderson issue. “Since there is a GoM and it has been given the mandate, it will be appropriate to wait for its outcome than indulging in speculations,” Congress spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters.
Mr Rasgotra, who broke his silence, said in an interview to CNN-IBN that the decision to give Anderson a safe passage was taken “the same day”.
“He (Streeb) said Anderson wanted to come here. There was a tragic situation and he wanted to see things himself, wanted to offer his condolences but he would come only if granted safe passage,” Mr Rasgotra said.
Asked if the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Arjun Singh was unaware of the safe passage which resulted in Anderson’s brief arrest in Bhopal, Mr Rasgotra said, “Did Arjun Singh really arrest him or the administrative authorities or police arrested. I cannot say.”
On his part, Mr Singh continued to maintain a stoic silence on the issue.
Anderson was the CEO of Union Carbide Corporation when a gas leak at its Bhopal plant poisoned the city in the night, leaving over 15,000 dead and lakhs incapacitated.
He arrived in Bhopal along with other executives of Carbide, he was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. He was arrested, then granted bail, and flown out of Bhopal on the chief minister’s official plane.
—PTI