A presentation by Mr. Nilesh Shah at Bullet Proof 2019 conference drew a very fine comparison to understand a True Hero. I will reproduce the section from the notes prepared by Akshat Jain.
○ Ghulam Dastagir - he was at Bhopal station, he saw the Union Carbide leak and he departed trains ahead of the scheduled time. He took the risk on his own responsibility. And he stopped Mumbai & Delhi trains coming towards Bhopal because he felt they might inhaled the poison gas. He also inhaled the same gas and suffered but he did all that without WhatsApp, social media, etc. Some of his own family members also died. He did a fantastic job - yet he got no Padma Bhushan or award. He lived the life of an ordinary citizen
○ Fali Sam Nariman - he represented Union Carbide and they walked away scot free. We recognized him with many awards too.
To understand the depth of contribution to mankind by what Ghulam Dastagir did please read:
Taking Fali Nariman case further Mr. Desai wrote brilliantly about Mr. Nariman:
I felt only disdain after reading today that so-called human rights campaigner, Fali Nariman, commenting on the calamitous Bhopal gas verdict in an interview to a television channel, had stated: "If I had to live my life all over again, as a lawyer, and the brief came to me and I had the foreknowledge of everything that later came in, I would certainly not have accepted the civil liability case which I did."
Nariman remained additional solicitor general of India from May 1972 to June 1975. He resigned to protest against the imposition of Emergency in India and that is his main claim to fame as a champion of human rights. The Nariman I saw between 1985 and 1989 arguing the case on behalf of the Union Cabide Corporation (UCC) in the Bhopal court was an ace legal eagle trying his best to justify the high legal fees that his American clients were paying to escape the clutches of Indian law. And, in the process, crushing the legal rights and hopes of justice of hundreds of thousands of gas victims like me. Whose human rights did he protect? Clearly, UCC chairman Warren Anderson’s.
Further, article by Mr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta posed a very true picture of Supreme Court:
The implications of this judgment are being pondered for sundry issues, including India’s geo-strategic position in relation to the US. Much of this discussion has focused on the political implications of this for the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill. But for those who think that even such colossal suffering should be assessed through the geo-strategic prism, the important question should be what this says about the credibility of our own institutions to serve our citizens. There is no doubt that the judgment has come again as a reminder of how fragile the authority of the Indian judiciary is. The last few years have made a huge dent in the reputation of the Indian Supreme Court on several dimensions, so much so that a propitious political ground has been created for more political oversight and superintendence of the judiciary. In terms of public reputation and authority the Indian Supreme Court is probably at its weakest in a number of years, with greater clamour for its accountability. The decision has again drawn attention to the fact that for all its thunderous bluster, the Supreme Court has, at crucial moments, let the country down. In a sense it has to constantly reclaim its legitimacy.
The legal twists and turns of the Bhopal case are enormous. Upendra Baxi’s work should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in excavating how the law sent justice for a toss in this case. A lot of the criticism of the Supreme Court in recent times has focused on institutional matters: the reluctance of judges to disclose assets, the lack of self-regulation within the judiciary, its failure to deal with corruption cases, the lack of judicial consistency, the gerrymandering of benches, the undue deference it consistently shows to top lawyers, the politics and lack of transparency of appointments, and so forth. The more serious and consequential critique of the Supreme Court should focus on its substantive failures in matters of law and governance. Bhopal was an illustrative case of how the Supreme Court could go seriously wrong.
I think Modi Government should honor men like Mr. Gulam Dastagir.
Additional reading: Lest we forget Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
Notes by Akshat Jain on Bullet Proof 2019 (for Investors) is worth reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment