"Why
don't these activists just let Bhopal
disaster rest in peace. Let bygones be bygones."- quoted from "Warren in
Wonderland".
Bhopal- Rest in Peace
There was a time when we knew Bhopal,
as
the newly assigned capital of Madhya Pradesh,
it soon emerged as an
important city,
and certainly a decently big one.
But the city was
to hit infamy,
not because of the deeds of its people,
it were to
be some outsiders,
who would made it known world-wide.
It was
Sunday, the night of 2nd December,
the people in India were sleeping,
and
so was Bhopal,
the poor workers of Union Carbide,
as also the
ordinary folks living around,
tomorrow was to be Monday,
yet
another day for the struggle to survive,
the daily churning of life
to live alive.
Destiny seemed to be thinking otherwise,
it had
decided to play some real dirty mischief,
and lo, it got ample
support from human frailities,
of lust, of desire, selfishness,
hankering and unending thirst.
The die was cast and the situation
favourable,
it needed only a little spark,
Methyl Iso cynate came
forward to volunteer,
the rest is history of death and destruction,
of
poor men dying the most horrible deaths,
being accompanied by their
wives and children,
and fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters,
it
was a case of absolute equality,
MIC didnot distinguish them on
caste and religion,
shrieks and wallows, yellings and cries,
loud
rendering of screaming screech,
getting mixed in the putrid tin of
death,
formed a rancid cocktail of evelasting destruction,
one
that many did not heed to,
one that got ignored in other important
compulsions,
one that ranked rather low on parameters of importance,
one
that could be "managed" in ways intelligent,
and so the story
meandered through,
its ghost still popping up now and then,
would
have gone back to slumber in the den of death,
in the absence of
obstinate, unyielding and dangerous creatures,
the likes of Jabbars
and Sathyus,
Rachnas, Jayaprakash and Irfans,
they are the real
sores, the hell-raisers,
who would not let the sad history die down,
and
let it Rest in Peace (RIP) happily for ever.
Amitabh Thakur
IIM Lucknow
# 94155-34526
