INDIA'S BJP SAYS BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY ACCUSED WARREN ANDERSON WAS LET OFF BY THEN CONGRESS GOVERNMENT

NATURAL WITH HINDI AND ENGLISH SPEECH

DURATION: 3.11

SOURCE: ANI

TV AND WEB RESTRICTIONS: NO ACCESS BBC

India's BJP says Bhopal Gas Tragedy accused Warren Anderson was let off by then Congress government.

India's ruling Congress party and main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continue to trade charges on letting the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy main accused Warren Anderson, then Chairman of Union Carbide, flee to the US.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS CONVERTED 4:3 MATERIAL

SHOWS:

BHOPAL, MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA (ORIGINALLY 4:3 MATERIAL) (FILE) (ANI- NO ACCESS BBC)

1. BODIES OF PEOPLE KILLED IN BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY IN 1984

2. VICTIMS BEING TREATED

3. VICTIMS

BHOPAL, MADHYA PRADESH/ NEW DELHI, INDIA (ORIGINALLY 4:3 MATERIAL) (JUNE 14, 2010) (ANI- NO ACCESS BBC)

4. (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) SUNDERLAL PATWA, FORMER CHIEF MINISTER OF INDIA'S CENTRAL MADHYA PRADESH STATE, SAYING: "Why is Mr. Arjun Singh silent? why is he not speaking? My question to him is that after arresting Anderson who telephoned from Delhi. It is confirmed that telephone call came from Delhi. He should reveal who telephoned and what was discussed."

BHOPAL, MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA (ORIGINALLY 4:3 MATERIAL) (FILE) (ANI- NO ACCESS BBC)

5. ARJUN SINGH, CHIEF OF MADHYA PRADESH STATE AT THE TIME OF THE BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY IN 1984, AND THEN INDIAN PRIME MINISTER RAJIV GANDHI

BHOPAL, MADHYA PRADESH/ NEW DELHI, INDIA (ORIGINALLY 4:3 MATERIAL) (JUNE 14, 2010) (ANI- NO ACCESS BBC)

6. (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) SUNDERLAL PATWA, FORMER CHIEF MINISTER OF INDIA'S CENTRAL MADHYA PRADESH STATE, SAYING: "Everything is an open secret. He (Prime Minister) wants a report within 10 days. I request him to also take a report on whether it was a conspiracy to experiment in which 15,000 people were killed."

NEW DELHI, INDIA (JUNE 14, 2010) (ANI- NO ACCESS BBC)

7. A NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS

8. RAJIV PRATAP RUDY, SPOKESPERSON OF INDIA'S MAIN OPPOSITION BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY, AND OTHERS COMING

9. REPORTERS SITTING

10. (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) RAJIV PRATAP RUDY, SPOKESPERSON OF INDIA'S MAIN OPPOSITION BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY, SAYING:"The Finance Minister (Pranab Mukherjee) gave a statement in West Bengal and he said in the statement and accepted that then chief minister and then Prime Minister were responsible for Anderson leaving this country. He himself clarified that law and order situation in Bhopal was so bad that they were not worried about those who had died but the government was worried about people responsible for that crime."

NEW DELHI, INDIA (JUNE 14, 2010) (ANI- NO ACCESS BBC)

11. JAYANTI NATARAJAN, SPOKESPERSON OF INDIA'S RULING CONGRESS PARTY, AND OTHERS COMING

12. NATARAJAN SITTING

13. (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAYANTI NATARAJAN, SPOKESPERSON OF INDIA'S RULING CONGRESS PARTY, SAYING: "The BJP should explain to the nation what steps were taken by the NDA government to extradite Warren Anderson. The BJP should explain why its then attorney general Soli Sorabjee gave an opinion in 2001 and then subsequently backtracked to give an opinion that Warren Anderson can't be extradited based on legal opinion obtained by the NDA government from the US law firm."

14. NATARAJAN INTERACTING WITH REPORTERS

STORY: India's ruling Congress party and main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday (June 14) continued to trade charges on letting the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy main accused Warren Anderson, then Chairman of Union Carbide, flee to the US.

Sunderlal Patwa, a veteran BJP leader and former state chief of central Madhya Pradesh where Bhopal is located, said that the then state chief Arjun Singh should break his silence on the issue.

"Why is Mr. Arjun Singh silent? why is he not speaking? My question to him is that after arresting Anderson who telephoned from Delhi. It is confirmed that telephone call came from Delhi. He should reveal who telephoned and what was discussed," said Patwa, in Bhopal, the provincial capital of Madhya Pradesh.

Singh has been embroiled in a controversy over his alleged role in letting Anderson flee after the world's worst industrial disaster.

The controversy erupted recently after an Indian court gave a mild sentence to the accused, while Anderson could not be brought to stand trial.

A court in Bhopal on June 07 sentenced seven top executives of Union Carbide during 1984 to two years in prison for negligence in failing to prevent one of the world's worst industrial accidents that killed thousands of people.

The judgment caused outrage across India with politicians, cutting across party lines, slamming the ruling Congress party for its sloppy prosecution.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked a Group of Ministers headed by Interior Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram to examine the issue.

"Everything is an open secret. He (Prime Minister) wants a report within 10 days. I request him to also take a report on whether it was conspiracy to experiment in which 15,000 people were killed," said Patwa.

Meanwhile, the BJP said a key federal minister has admitted that the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi could have been involved in letting off Anderson.

"The Finance Minister (Pranab Mukherjee) gave a statement in West Bengal and he said in the statement and accepted that then chief minister and then Prime Minister were responsible for Anderson leaving this country. He himself clarified that law and order situation in Bhopal was so bad that they were not worried about those who had died but the government was worried about people responsible for that crime," said BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy in New Delhi.

The ruling Congress Party was quick to point fingers at the BJP, which headed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government from 1998 to 2004, and asked them to come clean on its efforts to extradite Anderson.

"The BJP should explain to the nation what steps were taken by the NDA government to extradite Warren Anderson. The BJP should explain why its then attorney general Soli Sorabjee gave an opinion in 2001 and then subsequently backtracked to give an opinion that Warren Anderson can't be extradited based on legal opinion obtained by the NDA government from the US law firm," said Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan.

The Union Carbide plant in Bhopal accidentally released toxic gases into the air on the night of December 3, 1984.

According to government sources, around 3,500 people died immediately due to the gas leak but social activists say the actual figures touched 25,000 in the years that followed.