The amount of donation which the Bharatiya Janata Party has shown in its submission to the Election Commission as having received from Dow Chemical is so ridiculous (a mere 2500 US dollars) that one wonders how the party allowed itself to be treated so contemptuously by the US multinational by accepting it. The donation may not have added significantly to the BJP's coffers but this knowledge has further upset the hapless survivors of the 1984 gas leak from the pesticide factory of the Union Carbide, which was merged into Dow Chemical in February 2001. The survivors are especially enraged at the BJP for its insensate attitude towards them, though the Congress is no less guilty of harming their interests. Motilal Vora was the only (Congress) chief minister who had showed concern for the plight of the survivors and initiated a number of projects for their medical, economic, social and environmental rehabilitation.

        The BJP government of Sunderlal Patwa systematically dismantled whatever infrastructure was put up Vora's initiative. The scheme for setting up a special industrial zone, where the gas-affected people were to be provided with jobs suited to their frail physiques was scuttled and the buildings already constructed were handed over to a security organisation. The stitching centre, where the gas-affected women were able to earn their meagre livelihood by stitching clothes was wound up. Those suffering from the after-effects of the MIC gas were treated shabbily at the dispensaries set up specially for the gas victims. The money given by the Centre for environmental rehabilitation of the gas-affected people was spent on beautifying the roundabouts in areas where no gas-affected people lived. Patwa's minister of Bhopal gas disaster relief and rehabilitation Babulal Gaur had told the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, in reply to a calling-attention notice, in 1991 that the survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster were now quite well off and did not need any more assistance.

The BJP government was apathetic not only to those who had survived the MIC gas leak disaster but also to the future generation. The Supreme Court had expressed its profound concern on the fate of "yet unborn children of mothers exposed to MIC toxicity". Disposing of a string of writ petitions on October 3,1991, a division bench of the apex court observed: "We are of the view that such contingencies shall be taken care of by obtaining an appropriate group insurance cover from the General Insurance Corporation of India or the Life Insurance Corporation of India for compensation to this contingent class of possible prospective victims".

            The judgement said: "The period of insurance cover should be a period of eight years in the future. The number of persons to be covered by this Group Insurance Scheme should be about and not less than one lakh of persons… as this figure broadly accords with the percentage of population of the affected wards… and the number of persons found to be affected by medical categorisation…The possible claimants fall into two categories: those who were in existence at the time of exposure; and those who were yet unborn and whose congenital defects are traceable to MIC toxicity inherited or derived congenitally".

            The Patwa government did not bother about this population or the directive of the Supreme Court. Digvijay Singh, of the Congress, was worse because he turned out to be a depraved hypocrite whereas the BJP leaders at least never tried to deceive any one by ever showing a false sympathy for the gas leak survivors. Before he became chef minister in December 1993, Digvijay Singh was sitting on dharnas and submitting memorandums to the Governor, along with the leaders of the NGOs working for the gas leak survivors. Once he became the chief minister, he developed the same antipathy as Patwa had for the survivors and carried forward Patwa's task of dismantlement. Is it a wonder that he, too, cared little for the Supreme Court directive about the children born immediately before or after the 1984 disaster? As if to show its contempt for the Supreme Court directive, the present BJP government of Shivraj Singh Chauhan issued a notification denying medical help to the dependents of the gas victims --- which meant that those who were not in existence on the day of the disaster but were born later would not be given medical or other assistance available to gas victims. The notification was, however, withdrawn after there was a hue and cry and not only in Bhopal.

The residents are forced to use the ground water because, again, the State government has displayed a criminal disregard for the Supreme Court directive to ensure potable drinking water in the localities surrounding the erstwhile pesticides factory of the Union Carbide. As Dow Chemical is supposed to have taken over the assets and liabilities of Union Carbide following the merger of the two corporations, the survivors feel it is the responsibility of Dow Chemical to remove the chemical wastes. But with the BJP, the ruling party in Madhya Pradesh, having received donation from Dow Chemical itself, they wonder if it will ever happen!