Pranab Says Anderson Freed to Maintain Law and Order: Reports

In the ongoing witch-hunt to pin credibility for the release of former Union Carbide Corporation chairman Warren Anderson in the aftermath of the infamous Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Sunday said that the decision was taken by then Madhya Pradesh chief minister Arjun Singh in view of the deteriorating law and order situation, say media reports.

“Arjun Singh’s statement at that time as the chief minister clearly stated that law and order situation would have deteriorated in Bhopal. People’s frenzy was high, tempers were running high, therefore it was necessary to send him (Anderson) out of Bhopal,” Mukherjee was quoted as saying in Kolkata by the NDTV website.

Mukherjee added “We will explore the possibilities of extradition but we cannot comment on the judgment of the court. We will look into the provision of appeal,” the report said.

“But at the same time, the Finance Minister made it clear that the original decision to let Anderson go came from the state and not the Centre,” said the report.

Meanwhile, former Union Minister and one-time top aide of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi Arun Nehru too on Sunday claimed that the decision to release Anderson was taken by Singh, reported the Indian Express website.

“It is obvious that Chief Minister Arjun Singh took the decision (to release Anderson) and informed the Centre according to the press conference which the CM had addressed on December 7, 1984. He was the person in-charge and he took the decision,” Nehru said.

Nehru stressed that an authentic version of the episode could be got from the press interviews of Arjun Singh in 1984 and “to attribute any motive to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is wrong as the decision was taken by the CM,” said the report quoting him.

He, however, said a fresh controversy is being created unnecessarily when the facts were known and Singh had spoken on the issue in 1984 itself, it added.

According to the report, Nehru maintained that an attempt to judge the events of 1984 in 2010 could “never be right” and defended Singh by adding “He took the decision based on the ground situation then and that decision was being questioned now after 25 years.”