Rant - American Double Standards

US Attorney General Eric Holder categorically went on the record saying that the American government will be comprehensive and aggressive and will not rest until justice is done in respect the oil spill caused from the collapsed oil rig of British Petroleum (BP) in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill has reportedly caused tremendous loss to the coastal economies of the United States along with incalculable damage to the ecological environment and marine life.

The Attorney General even announced a criminal as well as a civil investigation into the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The administration of Barack Obama has vowed to hold the oil giant BP accountable for the disaster caused by its collapsed rig for billions of dollars.

However the world's worst industrial disaster was the in Bhopal in 1984. It has believed to claim up to 15000 lives and damaged the lives of thousands others. When asked if the US government will put more pressure on Dow Chemicals which bought Union Carbide Corporation a decade ago for cleaning up the site and extraditing Union Carbide executives including former CEO Warren Anderson who fled India just a few days after the accident and is absconding ever since the State Department officials diplomatically said "No".

The judgment given of two years in prison and fines of a few thousand dollars with no mention of Anderson is a travesty of justice which has left even American lawyers aghast.

Had this entire situation been the other way round and had an Indian company (or any other non-US company) been responsible for a similar disaster in the US, I am sure that the Americans would have left no stone unturned in getting their hands around the necks of the foreign company's management. If the management would have fled the US just like Anderson fled India, the US would have used "big brother scare tactics" to get them extradited to the US. If this seems far fetched then let me point to an example of what the US did in Pakistan. The Pakistani authorities have regularly been apprehending "terror suspects" on their soil and handing them over to the Americans even though an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis disdain these acts.

America was not likely to extradite Anderson even if he was convicted in absentia in India. The possibilities are even less now at a time when the US is keen to sell nuclear technology to India and the Indian government is facing a lot of heat from its allies as well as the opposition for agreeing to a "limited liability" clause in the nuclear agreement which absolves American corporations from paying astronomical amounts of damage in case another Bhopal like tragedy ever occurs in the future.

Its time we stood up to this double standard of America and at the same time kick our government in its derriere for taking this softly and sitting back like towards.

Remember, we will not be able to blame people in Bhopal for chanting "Death to America" if this sham justice goes through just like another run of the mill industrial accident.