The Bhopal tragedy: 25 years old and still relevant

It took 25 years after the world's worst industrial accident, where more than 20,000 people died and many times that number suffered lifelong ailments because of the gas leakage, to get a verdict against seven officers of the erstwhile Union Carbide Company. Yet in a few hours those officers were freed on bail. Their sentences, all under two years, have sparked nationwide outrage about the ease with which Union Carbide has got away.

Its CEO Warren Anderson was given safe passage by the government in 1984 and the US$470 million settlement reached with the company in 1998 - a fraction of Union Carbide's annual revenues at the time - gave it immunity from further legal action. What makes the outrage more pronounced is the current pressure BP is under to pay for the containment of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

There are many issues that these accidents raise about the extent and nature of corporate responsibility, but one thing is clear, companies, particularly multinationals, are coming under intense public scrutiny for their actions, and the reaction in India to the Bhopal gas tragedy verdict 25 years on, is evidence of this new sense of accountability that the public demands.

In 1984, India had just embarked on its economic reform programme. After decades of an ossified version of state socialism it had just about opened up to the idea of globalisation and free markets. At that time, the middle class saw the private sector as the panacea to all problems. Also, India was in the throes of an economic crisis and could ill afford to antagonise a powerful corporation.

The power equation between the Indian market and multinational corporations has changed. The retrospective rage, which might have come too late, is evidence of this. But at a more fundamental level, the middle class honeymoon with the private sector and multinationals might have come to an end. We saw this with Coke and Pepsi when they were involved in the pesticides controversy and we are seeing it again today. What was once the preserve of a few activists now seems closer to being mainstream opinion. The reverberations of Bhopal will be heard for much longer. And not just in India.

This article was originally published in the 17 June 2010 issue of Media.