Gassed, once again

First Person: After 26 years, once again, they arrived on the streets of Delhi, under the open sky. But the government refused to meet them, even as the survivors refused to surrender the horrific memories of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy to false promises
Sneha Gusain Delhi 

On August 18, I was given my first task as a magazine reporter:  to cover the protest organised by the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy.  It was a conference concluding their 24 days of dharna at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. 

The press conference was to start at 3 pm.  But I reached there an hour early, hoping to get a few first hand encounters personally. Walking towards the dharna sthal I could hear loud chants of slogans, and hurried my steps in case I was late. My eyes were wandering in search of a banner of Bhopal gas tragedy.  I could see a protest by Kashmiri students, by various political parties and many more but nowhere could I find the Bhopalis. When I enquired about them from the street hawkers and people around, they kept pointing at booths belonging to various political parties, where at regular intervals a crescendo of claps rose as the demagogue gave his speech.

As I made my way through the crowd, I suddenly spotted their banner and hurriedly made my way towards it. It was a small group of protesters, mostly women, sitting far away from the maddening crowd of others. Occasionally they would shout slogans accusing the prime minister and the Dow Chemicals. This made me think. Does one get attention only by means of aggressive activism? Aren't silent and peaceful protests also a means of being heard? 

On reaching, I was cordially greeted by Rachna Dhingra, who, along with Satinath Sarangi, leads the Bhopal Group for Information and Action. Their group has been working for 26 years now for the welfare of Bhopal gas tragedy victims, leading the struggle for justice from the front. 

Rachna informed me that "60 MPs spanning 19 political parties have endorsed a letter to the PM urging him to resolve all pending rehabilitation issues related to Bhopal by December 2010 which will mark the 26th anniversary of the tragedy which killed 20,000 people and directly and indirectly damaged 400,000 others. Thousands continue to suffer even now, while deformities and serious physical damages cripple others. With this assurance by MPs, and in light of the steps taken by the governments of India and Madhya Pradesh to address some of the key demands of the Bhopal dharna, the five organisers of the July-August, 2010 dharna will now end their protest and return to Bhopal." 

However, she said that her organisation wasn't fully convinced. They were rather disappointed since none of the major leaders (including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and P Chitambaram) of the ruling party managed visit the Bhopal gas victims in these 23 days they were out on the streets protesting and seeking the attention of the government. None of these political leaders or group of ministers who seemed so concerned on Bhopal could find time to reply to the numerous appeals sent by the Bhopal Group for Information and Action. And the irony is that the central government never includes the stakeholders in the decision making process of Bhopal Gas Tragedy.