Nirbhaya- A Tale of Tears

A pic showing Nirbhaya, before the attack(right) and after the attack (left)

If PAIN was an abbreviation then its expanded form would look something like “Plethoric Agony of Innocent Nirbhaya”. I hope everyone remembers who Nirbhaya was? The unfortunate girl who was at the receiving end of brutality showcased by a breed whom some people still call humans. Really astonished to know that they are yet to be hanged.

So, let's turn the tide back and look at the series of events from that day till day(15 Dec 2015). That day was also has the same date as today except for the year column which reads 2012. On that unfortunate Sunday evening, Nirbhaya along with her friend, had planned to spend some time together. They went to an evening show of the then famous "Life of PI" movie, post which they were wondering on how to head back home. It was then that misery struck, and struck them really hard.

They were unable to neither get any local transit nor was any auto driver ready to drop them at their destination and then they saw a bus heading their way. The bus halted in close proximity. Both of them figured out that although it was a private bus but still had a few passengers. They boarded the bus with a sigh of relief that at least it would reduce the distance to their destination if not make them reach their destination. This turned out to be the biggest mistake of both their lives. Little did they know that the bus they boarding into had no other passengers and the rest who pretended to be passengers were all of the same inhuman gang who had already robbed a poor person who had boarded their bus before Nirbhaya and her friend. Although the person who had boarded the bus prior to Nirbahya and her friend did inform two police officials who were on rounds, about the robbery and also the fact that they were all drunk. The two cops paid little heed to his words and in fact suggested him that "complaints are not lodged on road, so better visit a nearby police station" and zoomed of on their motor bikes.

Meanwhile in the bus the goons including driver and the so called "juvenile" had started teasing Nirbhaya and her friend. It was then that her friend protested and demanded an immediate halt. The goons snatched their mobiles, wallets and started beating up Nirbhaya's friend brutally. The driver hit him hard on his head with a rod and he fell unconscious. Poor Nirbhaya cried out for help but since the glasses of the bus were jam packed no one could either hear nor see her from outside. After her friend, it was now Nirbhaya's turn to suffer. They started by gang raping her and then it didn't at all stop there. They were all bent upon maximizing the pain on hapless Nirbhaya. The so called juvenile went to the in human extent of inserting rod in her private part and was repeatedly screaming "mar saali" (die you *******). Even though Nirbhya, who was in tears pleaded for her life promising that she will not tell anyone of the incident none of them felt pity at her condition. In fact all those sadists were ecstatic to see Nirbhaya on her heels pleading them. Finally after they felt that had pinned down their opponents they decide to throw them off their bus in the chilling cold with no clothes on both of their victims.

Nirbhaya laid unconscious but her friend recovered and started pleading for clothes and a trip to hospital. Many people did pass by and saw them but didn't stop to help them. It was after around an hour that a good soul arrived to their rescue. He took them to hospital and the doctor who saw Nirbhaya for the first time said "this is not rape this is madness".

Soon the news of this unfortunate event spread not only throughout Delhi but whole of India. Outraged by the incident, people came out on streets and demanded those six people be handed to public rather then being put behind the bars. Seeing this level of public outburst government was quick to realize that this outrage could really lead to something terrible if not controlled. Local police was under tremendous pressure and within a short notice got hold of all six perpetrators. The two cops who could have turned out to be last ray of hope for Nirbhya had they reacted instantly, were instantly fired from their services.

Amidst all these developments Nirbhaya's deterioting health was a big cause of concern. After a few intense days of medical treatment and observation government decided to shift her to Singapore, but nothing really seemed to work as Nirbhaha bid a sad farewell to her life, a few days post being shifted to Singapore. Her grief struck parents and a couple of younger brothers bought her body back only to be buried after she faced all that brutality.

Government decided to put the case in fast track from day one itself. But one of the perpetrator who was lucky that he was just 17 seemed to have escaped because of juvenile laws which impose a maximum punishment of just three years to be spent in correction home for any crime committed by someone less then 18. Government set up a three member panel which had to rethink on reduction of age limit of juveniles for the simple fact that the sixth criminal who was not only a juvenile but was most ferocious of all other when it came to level of atrocity being exhibited. But unfortunately the panel didn't recommend the reduction in age and as a result the sixth criminal had a lucky escape with just 3 years of correction home residence. 

But his five other counterparts had to face their trials in the fast track court. One of them who was the driver (may be ashamed of what he did) committed suicide in jail. But for sure God would have had returned him the same pain that he inflicted on the helpless girl.

The rest of the four perpetrators were prosecuted in a fast track court, which gave out its judgement within 8 months after the occurrence of the incident. There were no surprises in the death penalty judgement, as that was something the whole of the nation demanded. The case was also deemed as “rarest of rare”. As expected all of the four accused have challenged the decision in supreme court, which is yet to hear their petitions. And as for the juvenile, he is going to finish his three years term in correction home in a week’s time and what to do with him next has turned out to be an enigma for the Government. Because juvenile officials say that at the correction home is inmate was a juvenile terrorist and he has brain washed this rapist, who has already shown everyone how violent he can be. Now, if he is set free then the prospect of him joining a terror group and wrecking more havoc is on the cards, big time. But human rights activists say that he should be “given a chance” to be a good person. Well, human rights people should first understand that Human rights are for humans and anyone who has a couple of legs, hands, ears, eyes with a mouth and ear cant be termed human. Even modern robots have these.

Many people including Nirbhaya’s parents are of the opinion that the juvenile who’s face has been kept in dark all these years should be made to face the public. “If you want to release him release him, but show his face before releasing him” has turned out to be a popular banner writing. So 21^st December 2015 is the last date of the juvenile’s stay in correction home, post which government needs to take a call on whether to extend his stay or release on some conditions or do something else. But, I personally feel if you have to release him better castrate him and release him. At least he cant repeat the same crime. Nirbhaya’s parents got some cash from Government and one of her younger brother has been offered a government job. As for Nirbhaya’s friend he still wanders on those streets of Delhi wondering how different life would have been had he and Nirbhaya not boarded that bus on that black Sunday.

And finally Nirbhaya who had great aspirations to be a doctor could reach hospital only as a patient and finally rest in peace, but many difficult to answer questions still galore around her death. What wrong did she do to deserve this hatredness?, Could she have survived if anyone came to her rescue immediately after being thrown out of the bus, and more importantly Has she got justice?   

Bhopal Gas Tragedy-2-Dec-1984

The infamous pic of the buried child in the Bhopal incident 

Thirty-one years ago a terrible incident occurred at Bhopal which has left the lives of people wet eyed for the rest of not only their lives but also the next of their kins. Let’s revisit and have a look as to what actually happened on that unforgettable night of 2-12-1984.

Union carbide, a well know multi national had well established itself in the heart of India in the city of Bhopal. Their reputation spoke for themselves as they were one of the very few known multi national to operate with high levels of profit on a consistent basis. Let’s explore a bit of history on Union carbide.

Bhopal during the 1970’s was a poor city just like many of its Indian counterparts. People were looking for work, work and just work. It was then that the Union carbide came up with the proposal of setting up one of its unit in Bhopal. The top officials of the company had great relationship with the local government. The government officials were happy as well because they were able to hit two birds with a single pebble i.e to provide jobs to unemployed which would greatly benefit them during elections and secondly the fact that they can use it up as a weapon to show “development” has been done in Bhopal, a result of which an MNC has its branch in such a small city. Union carbide was also under huge profits as they got lands at a very low cost to set up their factories. It was a total win-win situation for both the parties involved.

Union carbide manufactured a pesticide called “Siven” which infected the nervous system of the pests and killed them. All seemed to go well for a few years but then came the doomsday. The company wanted to cut down its costs, even at the risk of employees safety. They replaced the experienced candidates with freshers (as they can pay them a lesser pay package) stating that they will train them and make them as perfect as their predecessors. This did’nt have much effect on safety as the newly employed candidates lacked experience but not talent. But the company’s greed just did’nt end here.  

As it is said that “Every misfortune does ring a bell before its arrival” similarly there were danger bells in this case to but they were all ignored. A few years before the deadly incident occurred an employee lost his life, thanks to the company’s cost saving techniques, which was just an indication to occurrence of the calamity. If the company had reacted at the death of this employee many lives would have had been saved. But that did’nt happen. The company switched off the cooling system  that cooled an “underground monster”, which  was an important ingredient in manufacturing of siven.  The Nitrogen levels present in underground tanks along with the "monster" was alarmingly decreasing and the company didn’t bother to enhance the tanks with more nitrogen. Even the pressure indication meters which showed the pressure levels in underground tanks, were not working properly. A blocker or safety valve which stopped water from mixing with the "deadly monster' had to be installed by opening a pipe but the company did’nt consider this as an important task since it cost them around 2-3 hours of a labor’s work time and this work gave them no productivity but would have enhanced the security of employees which was not on the company’s profit agenda.

So now let’s see the "monster" discussed above and the one which wrecked havoc in Bhopal that night. It was “Methyl iso cyanide” a deadly dangerous and highly reactive chemical stored in huge amount in three underground tanks in gaseous form. Cyanide is something, which if you lick you die and this was combined with methyl and was in gaseous state as well which meant that if the tanks burst, gaseous methyl iso cyanide could easily evaporate into the atmosphere.

So on that deadly night a few workers were performing a routine clean up work of some pipes. A strange incident occurred. They were cleaning a huge pipe but the water that they poured from one end didn’t flow out from another end and this caused a few tremors in the workers but none of them knew this would trigger something really bad a couple of hour later. They called a few experts to track the path traversed by water in the pipe. Before the experts could start their trail water did start to flow out from the other end which made everyone breath a sigh of relief, but not for too long. What everyone missed was the fact that some of the water, used up for cleaning somehow changed its path and headed towards the deadly containers having methyl iso cyanide. On its way the water stream also took the rusty parts of iron as well. The safety valve was missing which could have been the best water blocker but since it was not installed water flew viscously. Nitrogen gas could have had stopped water from interacting with methyl iso cyanide but since it had exhausted, water eventually did meet with monster and they both turned out to be a deadly duo. The result of this mixture (and also not to forget the iron rust particles which water bought with it) gave way to a deadly chemical reaction in the tank which increased the pressure levels greatly in the tank. But no one was aware of it, since the pressure valves were not working properly. Had the cooling system switched on,it would have had solidified the resultant chemical. The pressure slowly increased and reached a great extent and it was now that the pressure valves shooted up directly from zero to maximum and the staff got a rough idea of what they were up against. With very less reaction time in hand they were quick to realize that methyl iso cyanide has escaped from the tank and is heading towards chimney from where it can directly interact with the atmosphere thus creating a cloud of death. In a last attempt to avoid the disaster they tried shooting water jets at the gas while it was moving out from chimney, but they neither had sufficient cold water nor the water jets were strong enough to reach the peak of chimney from where the gas flew out. They did ring the emergency siren but it was only for employees not the city of Bhopal which was deep into sleep since it was midnight. 

What happened next is remembered till date. As this deadly gas entered people’s lungs they started to cough initially and their eyes began to heat up giving them a burning sensation. Slowly more and more people and eventually the whole town was under the cluthches of this deadly gas. People started to madly run towards hospitals. Many of them losing their lives on the way and many after reaching hospital. The doctors had no idea as to what had hit the town such that it was threatening to take Bhopal’s population to zero in a matter of night. Even though the doctors came to know that it was methyl iso cyanide but they did’nt know how to cope up with the patients and what treatment to be given.  They could helplessly only see people dying in front of them. The news of Bhopal tragedy spread all over India and even the world. Everyone wanted to know how did it all happen. Quite ironic was the fact that a company which started as a manufacturer of pesticides was killing people like pests. Even animals were not spared by this horror night.

The then CEO of Union carbide Warren Anderson visited India the next morning. Everyone wanted him arrested and it did happen to. But he was released on bail within four days courtesy his good relations with local government and he left India immediately never to return. (Warren Anderson died in September 2014)

Indian Government appointed Mr. Tyagarajan to investigate what exactly happened that night at the factory. Tyagarajan was surprised to know about the security compromisation policy of the organization but was even more worried to know that their were still another two underground tanks which had more methyl iso cyanide then what evaporated out. He decided that the only way to make Bhopal safe was to exhaust these two tanks entirely. But for that to happen the factory had to restart its operations which meant that Bhopal-2 would be on the cards big time. But there was no other option. So the factory restarted its operations to exhaust all of the Methyl iso cyanide. But government decided to take better safety measures this time. They covered entire plant with wet cloth to keep it cool, helicopters carrying water flew on top of factory ready to splash water bombs if needed. As the news of the factory restarting its operation spread across Bhopal everyone started to vacate the city and it turned out to be a land of the departed, a city of ghosts were no one wanted to live.

Mr. Tyagarajan and his team did start their work and after seven long days of siven manufacturing they were able to fully exhaust all the methyl iso cyanide in the remaining two tanks. Bhopal was declared safe to live but who wants to live in this city which gave them such a horrible night.

The Union carbide did say that it was some mischevious employee who wantedly let water into that tank which caused the reaction and not their lack of safety measures which made many laugh out their lives. The reaction caused that night was so fateful that people who were affected then are still suffering. But the problem is that even their sons and daughters born way after the occurrence of this incident are affected by it. They are genetically unstable. Some have crucked legs, some don’t have nose, some cant talk clearly and so on…In 1989 five years after the occurrence of this incident Union carbide decided to pay out compensation to the victims. They gave away some huge amount of dollars to Indian government which disbursed it to the victims. What was hilarious was the fact that it only accounted for Rs. 12410 for each victim, which means you have to find a doctor who within 12410 will not only cure you but also your future generations. Can such a doctor or a hospital be found remains to be the so called “YAKSHA PRASHNE” till date.