Imagine you kiss your child goodnight. You go back to your room to sleep. During the night, poisonous gases fill your child’s room, suffocating him. In the morning, when you go to wake him up for school, you find him dead. I am sorry to create this gory visual, and i hope and pray this never happens to you. However, this is precisely what happened to thousands of families in Bhopal in 1984.
Many factors led to, and could have prevented, the incident. The location of a poisonous chemicals facility so close to the city, poor maintenance of equipment, cutting corners on safety by management, previous warnings about plant safety, labour issues – all these have been identified by studies post the incident. There are clearly two guilty parties – the company Union Carbide that owned the plant, and various government authorities that gave various approvals for it.
More disturbing is the post-incident handling of affairs by our government. It is reported that the government actually assisted Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide India Limited, in leaving the country. The other accused were punished after 25 years, after getting two-year sentences, and were out on bail after paying Rs 25,000 bonds.
Many factors led to, and could have prevented, the incident. The location of a poisonous chemicals facility so close to the city, poor maintenance of equipment, cutting corners on safety by management, previous warnings about plant safety, labour issues – all these have been identified by studies post the incident. There are clearly two guilty parties – the company Union Carbide that owned the plant, and various government authorities that gave various approvals for it.
More disturbing is the post-incident handling of affairs by our government. It is reported that the government actually assisted Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide India Limited, in leaving the country. The other accused were punished after 25 years, after getting two-year sentences, and were out on bail after paying Rs 25,000 bonds.
Compare this to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, 65 km away from the US shoreline. The spill started in April due to an explosion on board Deepwater Horizon, an offshore drilling rig leased by BP, one of the world’s leading oil exploration companies. So far the only human casualties are around 11 people who died during the explosion. The spill, while causing significant damage to marine life and ecology, is not expected to cause any further human casualties.
The US government, however, is sparing no effort in bringing BP to book. President Barack Obama himself has made several anger-filled statements about BP’s ‘recklessness’ and doing ‘what it takes’ to get BP to fix it. Such is the fear of the US government’s resolve to teach BP a lesson that BP shares have lost half their market value since the spill began – or a value decline close to $90 billion. Analysts estimate that BP may have to compensate up to $1,000 for every barrel of oil spilled (incidentally, the Bhopal accused came out on bail for around half that amount). BP had to cut its dividends, risks a takeover and has already spent billions trying to plug the leak.
That’s how you teach big corporates a lesson. You make the cost of playing with safety so high that they never even dream of short cuts. While it is unfortunate that one incident can wipe out a global corporate, there is no other choice. One big guy punished changes the way thousands of other companies think. I can bet every oil company right now is evaluating its safety procedures. To protect marine life and related industries, even the business-friendly US government is ready to – as a White House spokesman said – “put the boot on BP’s neck”.
Back home, it is a different story. In a village in Punjab, kids are having neurological problems as there is uranium in the water due to pollution by a nearby plant. And Bhopal, the mother of all industrial disasters, is serving as an example of how cheaply our government values Indian citizen’s lives.
Let there be no doubt, the government is as much a culprit in Bhopal as Union Carbide. Every plant approval, safety norms and inspections also involve government authorities. Palms are greased, relationships are made and the good Indian businessmen learn to manage government officials. After all, the skill of doing business in India is managing the system, not innovation or better products. The nexus between rich people and government servants is strong, and you will often find one in the other’s living rooms in the evenings.
Why do so many politicians socialise with industrialists? Over dinners, they bond and plan their kids’ education and their wives’ shopping trips. Over parties, they shake hands over approvals. It all seems perfectly harmless. After all, what’s wrong in making friends? However, trouble happens when disaster strikes. The first person the politician/bureaucrat helps is the industrialist, not the suffering people. I’m sure Anderson knew the right people. And he used his contacts to make his escape. The little kid who got gassed didn’t have contacts. Neither did he have a government representative who would bang his fists on the table to get him justice. Because, quite simply, people here are cheaper than fish.
All hope is not lost, however. We can still learn our lessons and do a couple of things. One, our laws need to be amended for corporate disasters. They make a mistake, they have to pay – heavily. Two, politician-industrialist socialising should not be encouraged. A politician making social visits with industrialists, while it can’t be banned, should definitely be disclosed. Finally, our golden opportunity comes when Obama visits in November. If he can scream so much for fish, surely we can tell him what an American company did to our kids. He loves to appease, and maybe we can get a large amount for the victims. But for that, some leader will have to bang his fists on the table for the people of Bhopal. Do it, for we don’t want anyone to suffocate our kids again -ever.
The US government, however, is sparing no effort in bringing BP to book. President Barack Obama himself has made several anger-filled statements about BP’s ‘recklessness’ and doing ‘what it takes’ to get BP to fix it. Such is the fear of the US government’s resolve to teach BP a lesson that BP shares have lost half their market value since the spill began – or a value decline close to $90 billion. Analysts estimate that BP may have to compensate up to $1,000 for every barrel of oil spilled (incidentally, the Bhopal accused came out on bail for around half that amount). BP had to cut its dividends, risks a takeover and has already spent billions trying to plug the leak.
That’s how you teach big corporates a lesson. You make the cost of playing with safety so high that they never even dream of short cuts. While it is unfortunate that one incident can wipe out a global corporate, there is no other choice. One big guy punished changes the way thousands of other companies think. I can bet every oil company right now is evaluating its safety procedures. To protect marine life and related industries, even the business-friendly US government is ready to – as a White House spokesman said – “put the boot on BP’s neck”.
Back home, it is a different story. In a village in Punjab, kids are having neurological problems as there is uranium in the water due to pollution by a nearby plant. And Bhopal, the mother of all industrial disasters, is serving as an example of how cheaply our government values Indian citizen’s lives.
Let there be no doubt, the government is as much a culprit in Bhopal as Union Carbide. Every plant approval, safety norms and inspections also involve government authorities. Palms are greased, relationships are made and the good Indian businessmen learn to manage government officials. After all, the skill of doing business in India is managing the system, not innovation or better products. The nexus between rich people and government servants is strong, and you will often find one in the other’s living rooms in the evenings.
Why do so many politicians socialise with industrialists? Over dinners, they bond and plan their kids’ education and their wives’ shopping trips. Over parties, they shake hands over approvals. It all seems perfectly harmless. After all, what’s wrong in making friends? However, trouble happens when disaster strikes. The first person the politician/bureaucrat helps is the industrialist, not the suffering people. I’m sure Anderson knew the right people. And he used his contacts to make his escape. The little kid who got gassed didn’t have contacts. Neither did he have a government representative who would bang his fists on the table to get him justice. Because, quite simply, people here are cheaper than fish.
All hope is not lost, however. We can still learn our lessons and do a couple of things. One, our laws need to be amended for corporate disasters. They make a mistake, they have to pay – heavily. Two, politician-industrialist socialising should not be encouraged. A politician making social visits with industrialists, while it can’t be banned, should definitely be disclosed. Finally, our golden opportunity comes when Obama visits in November. If he can scream so much for fish, surely we can tell him what an American company did to our kids. He loves to appease, and maybe we can get a large amount for the victims. But for that, some leader will have to bang his fists on the table for the people of Bhopal. Do it, for we don’t want anyone to suffocate our kids again -ever.