Report has no answer on Anderson’s safe passage: BJP
By IANSMonday, June 21, 2010
NEW DELHI - Reacting to a ministerial panel’s report on the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday demanded an explanation from the Congress on the safe passage given to then Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson.
“There is no mention of who helped Anderson get out of India safely… Congress should give an explanation. People of India are saddened by this report,” party spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters here, reacting to the Group of ministers’ (GoM) report.
“We welcome GoM’s attempt to fix things but the offenders have been let free. We need an explanation… Why is the Congress president silent,” he added.
The ministerial panel constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and chaired by Home Minister P. Chidambaram held four sessions since Friday to deliberate on the areas that require attention for providing relief to people affected by the world’s worst industrial disaster.
The panel’s report has key recommendations on addressing the wrongs in the 25-year-old disaster.
The disaster took place Dec 2-3, 1984 night when nearly 40 tonnes of methyl isocynate gas leaked out of storage tanks of the Union Carbide factory, killing an estimated 20,000 people over the years.
