A former Deputy Chief of Mission of the US embassy in New Delhi in 1984 has told NDTV that Warren Anderson's release from house arrest in Bhopal and his flight to Delhi was arranged by the Ministry of External Affairs. In an exclusive interview, Gordon Streeb said the US did not want any action to be taken against Anderson and that the then Foreign Secretary M K Rasgotra assured him that nothing would happen to Warren Anderson during his visit.
A crucial point of the controversy over the Bhopal gas tragedy verdict has been the exit route offered to Anderson, who was the American CEO of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) in 1984 when a gas leak from the company's plant choked Bhopal.
Anderson's departure from Bhopal was not a stealthy one. He flew out on December 7, hours after landing in Bhopal, on the official plane of the then Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Arjun Singh. He then stopped in Delhi before leaving the country. But the verdict delivered last week, which offered a nano-punishment to seven Carbide executives, all of them Indian, has led to a new public anger pivoted on why Anderson has never faced trial.
Here are the excerpts from the interview with Gordon Streeb:
NDTV: Can you elaborate on what circumstances Warren Anderson decided to come to India?
Gordon Streeb: We got a call from Union Carbide suggesting that Mr Anderson would like to come to India to show the concern of the corporation at the highest levels for the victims and to get some sense of what had happened at the plant. But both Union Carbide and I were concerned that there be no action taken against Mr Anderson. We did not want to have Mr Anderson come to India to make this gesture and to assess the situation and put himself at risk of being arrested or whatever.
So, based on that I checked with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), and to the best of my knowledge, most of my conversations, or all of them were with the Foreign Secretary. They got back to me and said yes, they agree that it would be useful for Mr Anderson to come to display and demonstrate Union Carbide's concern and that they would provide him assurance that nothing would happen to him during this visit.
When he got to Bhopal, obviously, the local officials thought differently. I personally have no idea whether there had been any communication from the Central government to the state government...how this all evolved. The only thing is, the next thing I was aware of from New Delhi was I got a call and was told he was under house arrest at which point I got back in touch with the MEA and asked what we could do to get his release. They told me they'd check into this. The next thing I knew, they had arranged for his release and transport to New Delhi. When he got to New Delhi, he came to the US embassy where we all agreed it would be best he keep a low profile, not get involved with the public, the media, anybody and that the best thing to do at this point was to depart India in accordance with the agreement we had had, in which case he stayed at the embassy until the next flight to the US and he then went to the airport and left. And that was the extent of the arrangements we had made and my own involvement at that time.
NDTV: You have spoken of a safe passage to him. Who assured him of this safe passage?
Gordon Streeb: That I got from the MEA, the Foreign Secretary. Now there's a lot of speculation in India as I'm seeing in the press right now about who actually made that decision. That I cannot tell you. I have no idea where this went up the chain of command in the Indian government. My interaction was strictly with the Foreign Secretary. I, to the best of my recollection, never talked to the FM or the PM. I dealt exclusively with the ministry. Who made that decision, I cannot tell you.
NDTV: Did you get the sense that this was a decision taken by the Center or state?
Gordon Streeb: The only people I dealt with were at the ministry so as far as I know this was a decision by the Government of India at the federal level, at the central level.
NDTV: The Congress says Anderson got bail because he was meant to return. Was this Anderson's understanding?
Gordon Streeb: Oh yes, definitely, otherwise we would've advised him not to come to India. We were in the very early stages of this event and emotions run high as we saw with the Madhya Pradesh government, understandably they were very concerned about who was going to be held accountable but from our standpoint, at this point in time, I advised and agreed with Union Carbide that he should not be coming to India if he was going to be subjected to arrest or any other actions at this point.
