Dow Bhopal Tragedy

I bumped into an article in Business week and I was surprised to note what's happening.

In 1984, Bhopal gas tragedy happened. Union Carbide was completely responsible for everything that happened and they were liable to make any clean up that's required. They paid some money to the victims and then everything was left as it is. Neither the government nor Union Carbide did anything more to address the environmental impact that the leak had created.

Dow Chemical bought whatever was left of the Union Carbide plant. They bought the company shares.

And now, a bunch of people are holding their hands, shouting at Dow Chemical to spend millions of dollars to clean the water table.

The law ministry is also sending wrong signals and supporting this stupid idea.

I seriously don't understand. Why are these people blaming Dow? Just because an international company decided to buy a rundown plant, can you just blame them for whatever happened before?

On top of this, some students at the IITs are objecting to an institutional tie-up with Dow Chemical. That's stupidity to the highest level. Don't these students ever think at all? This is what happens when respected institutions are influenced by reservation policies, the Ministry and a bunch of uneducated politicians.

There is also an NGO that is fighting against Dow Chemical. The Chemicals Ministry has told - "the polluter should pay". What a statement. Damn it! Everyone knows that the polluter was Union Carbide and they were supposed to do the clean up. All these people kept quiet, got bribes once in a while, and now when a renowned firm entered the country, they have decided to put the blame on it. Maybe, someone gave them an idea that if we blame an international firm, they will immediately do what's required to prevent any damage to their brand value at the world market.

Do any of these parties understand that its the responsibility of the government and Union Carbide officials to solve this problem?

If we told that going forward, Dow has to be responsible for whatever happens, then its okay. Why do we have to pass our own inefficiencies to someone who is quiet?