Lucknow, June 19 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Rahul Gandhi to break their silence on the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy and disclose who allowed safe passage to then Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson to enable him leave the country.
‘We have read the statement of Congress leader Arjun Singh, who was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh at the time of the tragedy, over the issue…And now it’s the turn of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to speak on the matter and tell the country on whose directions Anderson was given the safe passage,’ BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters here.
‘The Congress government always projects that it cares of the common man and their interests. So, I would ask that as the Bhopal gas tragedy is also related to thousands of common men, who either died or were gripped with health problems, isn’t it the responsibility of the government to tell the truth to the citizens of the country?’ he asked.
Hussain said the central government should treat the gas tragedy as a wake up call and must immediately withdraw the civil nuclear liability bill from parliament.
‘The Congress government must learn lessons from the Bhopal gas tragedy. The bill is meant to please Americans. It will not be of any help for the common man of the country. For the safety of the citizens of India, the government must act to withdraw the bill,’ he said.
The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010, which has been referred to the parliament’s standing committee on science and technology after fierce opposition from major political parties, fixes the maximum amount of liability in case of a nuclear accident at Rs.500 crore, to be paid by the operator of the nuclear plant.
