A verdict delivered 26 years after one of the worst industrial disasters known to man, puts me to shame about the despicable bureaucracy and spineless law and judiciary system that serves the worlds biggest democracy.
15,000 people died overnight. Thousands upon thousands of others were disabled for life. Hundreds of thousands of innocent livelihoods were affected forever from an incident that was nothing but gross neglect at Bhopal's Union Carbide chemical plant in 1984.
After 26 years the court 'punished' the guilty by ordering 2 years of imprisonment and Rs. 100,000 in monetary penalty. Each one of these criminals was out on bail of Rs 25,000 within a matter of hours after the verdict.
I live in a nation where 10 Million USD get awarded to a clumsy suitor who is stupid enough to spill hot coffee on herself, on the grounds that the fast food company selling the coffee did not have a written warning on the coffee cup stating that the fluid inside would be very hot (duh). The idea behind such verdicts is to remind the 'corporate' that they were to put a human, a consumer, ahead of everything.
In contrast, I come from a nation where thousands of lives and livelihoods of its citizens are of no consequence and concern to its own government. I come from a country where time and again its own Government fails its citizens in practically every aspect of life...the spectrum of failure is mind boggling. Hard fact is that an Indian living under the jurisdiction of the Indian Government is an unprotected, exploited and vulnerable entity.
In contrast, I come from a nation where thousands of lives and livelihoods of its citizens are of no consequence and concern to its own government. I come from a country where time and again its own Government fails its citizens in practically every aspect of life...the spectrum of failure is mind boggling. Hard fact is that an Indian living under the jurisdiction of the Indian Government is an unprotected, exploited and vulnerable entity.
