What do you remember about the Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984?
Indian Airlines pilot Rajiv Gandhi who had no political experience was made PM after tragic death of her mother, PM Indira Gandhi. The 1984 general election saw congress party winning record 400 plus Lok Sabha seats due to sympathy wave generated due to assassinated of Indira Gandhi. But 5 years later, rival VP Singh government formed a coalition government, defeating congress. What went wrong for Rajiv Gandhi?
Rajiv Gandhi era saw some big political blunders. These are – Bofors defence deal (scam), Shah Bano Supreme Court judgement reversal (Muslim appeasement), handling Bhopal gas tragedy victims and allowing Union Carbide (now Dow Jones) former chairman Warren Anderson to escape (nepotism).
Accidents may happen due to criminal neglect or human error. But Bhopal gas tragedy was a huge tragedy and world’s worst industrial accident till date. It has huge human casualty immediately and also for decades to come as future generation kids born much later also had deformities by birth. Immediately after this disaster large number of USA based lawyers offered their help to fight court cases against Union Carbide in India and USA. Most USA based lawyers expected Union Carbide will have to sell out at least $ 3 Billion (1984 price) as compensation to the victims. Surprisingly, Indian government closed this case as out-of-court settlement with paltry amount $ 470 million which is less than one-sixth of estimated compensation amount. That time Indian government justification was litigation will take long time and they need money urgently for the affected people. Clearly, the compensation was a sell-out.
The other controversy was let-out of Union Carbide Corporation chairman Warren Anderson from the Bhopal airport. This story is interesting and proves congress dynasty corruption and nepotism.
Muhammad Yunus (full name Muhammad Yunus Khan) was the nephew of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known as Frontier Gandhi, and participated in the freedom movement with his uncle as loyal congressmen. He was only a year older than Indira Gandhi and studied at Aligarh Muslim University. He was also jailed during the Quit India Movement and was released in 1944 due to serious illness. This is how Jawaharlal Nehru knew him, and thus he was Indira's childhood friend. When Jawaharlal Nehru became Prime Minister in 1947, he recruited Muhammad Yunus into the Indian Foreign Service without any examination. At that time, public examinations for IAS, IFS, etc. had not yet begun. These examinations began in 1948. Nehru had sent Muhammad Yunus as a Foreign Service officer and ambassador to Turkey, Indonesia, Iraq, and Spain.
It is rumoured that Muhammad Yunus Khan was the second (undisclosed) husband of Indira Gandhi, aka Maimuna Begum, and the real father of Sanjay Gandhi. A justification of this that Sanjay Gandhi’s marriage happened at his house. In his book, "Persons, Passions and Politics," he wrote, "I am Sanjay Gandhi's father and I circumcised him." This same Yunus had played the role of father-in-law at Sanjay's wedding to Maneka and had insisted that the wedding procession leave from his house.
It was this Muhammad Yunus who was seen weeping and beating his chest over Sanjay Gandhi's corpse after his air crash death in 1980. That time Indira Gandhi remained composed. This led to some speculation that Indira Gandhi has some role in his son’s air crash because he became a liability for the congress due to emergency excesses. Indira Gandhi appointed Muhammad Yunus the Chairman of the Indian Trade Fair Authority, meaning the supreme authority, and entrusted him with complete control of Pragati Maidan in Delhi. He was later awarded the Padma Bhushan.
This same Muhammad Yunus had another son - Adil Shahryar. Adil Shahryar had become spoilt due to being away from his parents and while living in America, he had become a part of a big drug cartel. One day, when American police raided his bungalow in Miami, 80 kilos of cocaine was found. This was a huge recovery in those days and the American court sentenced him to 35 years of imprisonment and he was sent to a prison in Florida. He remained in prison for 10 years. Indira Gandhi's government, and after her assassination, Rajiv Gandhi's government, tried hard to secure a pardon for Adil Shahryar from then-US President Ronald Reagan, but without success. Meanwhile, on December 3, 1984, the gas leak tragedy occurred at Union Carbide, Bhopal, which claimed the lives of thousands and left thousands more permanently disabled or ill. When Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson came to Bhopal, he was arrested by the government of Madhya Pradesh CM Arjun Singh. When the US President objected to this, Rajiv Gandhi struck a deal with USA to release Warren Anderson in exchange for his half-brother Adil Shahryar.
Thus, by trading the bodies of Indians, the Nehru family secured the release of their helf-brother, Adil Shahryar, from America and drove Warren Anderson away. In fact CM Arjun Singh released Warren Anderson from guest house arrest and sent to Bhopal airport on a government while ambassador cab after getting instruction from PM Rajiv Gandhi. CM Arjun Singh has written a full account of this incident in his autobiography.
In 2015, when congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge was questioning the escape of IPL Chairman Lalit Modi in Parliament, then-External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, waving this autobiography, questioned Adil Shahryar, which left all congress members stunned. The long speech of Sushma Swaraj in parliament exposed another big and dirty family secret of congress dynasts and this long speech is available on media/social media. Post Bhopal incident, Adil Shahryar stayed in Delhi where he formed a company named "Priyadarshini Institute Center" (Indira Gandhi name) inside the Pragati Maidan where his father was director. It was a very popular computer training institute at New Delhi in late 1980s. He got a lot of work from various departments of the Government of India. Adil Shahryar died in 1990 and was buried secretly.
Just like Rajiv Gandhi’s father Feroze Ghandy name was removed from the congress party, Adil Shahryar crimes were also kept secret by the dynasts. Clearly, Rajiv Gandhi made terrible mistakes during his tenure and after 1984 massive win, no congress government could formed as majority government at centre.
Picture source: Google / Respective rightful owner
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