BJP funded by Dow, won't bring justice to Bhopal victims: AAP candidate

2014 will mark the 30th anniversary of the world’s worst ever industrial disaster - the Bhopal gas tragedy. Since 3 December 1984, the government has done little, if nothing, for two generations of victims. In 2000, after studying business at the University of Michigan, and landing a job with Accenture, Rachna Dhingra had never imagined she would join politics. Today, she takes on the grand, old Indian political system as an Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Bhopal. Firstpost spoke to her at length about her work with Bhopal’s survivors and what makes her confident of winning these polls. You were in the United States, working with a corporate. You quit to move back to India. What brought you back? I got involved in the Bhopal campaign in 2000, this happened in the US when victims came to protest the merger of Union Carbide with Dow. It was then that I found out more, and got to know it was still continuing… so I got involved. It also so happened that while I was working with Accenture, my client was Dow. I thought I could bring about change by convincing people of what’s happening but that didn’t work out so I had to quit corporate America and come to Bhopal and see if I could be of any use. [caption id=“attachment_1482675” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AAP’s Bhopal candidate Rachna Dhingra. Image: Facebook[/caption] It has been almost 30 years since the Bhopal tragedy, those responsible have not yet been brought to justice. Just seven people have been charged and fined a sum of $2000 each. Do you still have hope that those behind the disaster will be brought to book? Yes, I still believe it will happen. It is with this hope that I’m doing what I’m doing right now. It’s regardless of whether I’m contesting or not… and it’s clear that the current government or the previous ones have no political will to ensure that those guilty are brought to book. We have done everything in terms of helping the prosecution in various litigations or going to the US government and pressurising them or even helping the CBI. It’s clear that the government will not do anything to bring those responsible to book. This, in fact, is one of the main reasons why I have decided to contest elections from Bhopal. It’s a significant issue and people deserve justice even if it’s after 30 years. But you are contesting in a BJP strong hold. Kailash Joshi won with 65% of votes. They’ve been winning since 1989. Are you confident of ending that winning streak? They are confident. I have been going almost everyday spending 14 hours campaigning in the community. Earlier, I used to restrict myself only to areas affected by the gas tragedy but now I’m moving to other villages and parts of Bhopal, and I’m finding the situation similar. They don’t have access to basic amenities and facilities where they live. In one line, they are not living a life of dignity. Basic things are denied to them, and there is massive frustration among the people. It’s true that the BJP has been winning for 20-odd years but it’s also true that the people are frustrated and are looking for an alternate government. I can feel that people in Bhopal are looking for change. But a huge chunk of your voters are less than 30 years old. Almost six lakh are between the age group of 20-29, 60,000 are between the age group of 18-20. They have not seen the gas tragedy. Why should they vote you to power? Well, I think it is still an issue for some if their parents were exposed, it may not be a major issue for others. But there are other problems as well. There is the Vyapam scam (Rs 2,000-crore alleged scam concerning the Professional Examination Board in the state) that affects many youth and their professional career. So there is a lot of outrage against it (government) among the youth in the state. And it’s not only the BJP that’s responsible, even the Congress is involved. Both the parties are a part of this scandal. Sanjeev Saxena of the Congress is an accused in the case. Sanjay Pathak, who recently joined the BJP was the one who filed a writ petition against the BJP government. Now both the parties have gone quiet on the issue. AAP has faced its share of criticism. If pre-poll surveys are to be believed, Kejriwal’s popularity has dropped significantly in Delhi. The party is yet to win outside Delhi. What makes you feel that AAP is your best bet versus standing as an independent? I have been visiting people every single day. People will stop, smile, ask us for caps, give us victory signs. This is all which I don’t see national parties get from common people. The hope and smile on people’s faces and the frustration against the other parties, that is what gives me hope as against the other two main parties. India has a controversial nuclear liability law with many clauses that are arguably lenient to the operator. And many will claim India is yet to learn from the gas tragedy? Would this be on the top of your agenda? Nuclear liability bill is definitely something on the top of our agenda. To have such a bill is disastrous. To say the operator is not responsible is like giving them a clean chit. And above that, to have tax payers foot the bill is exactly what the corporations have learnt from the governments and now they have gone ahead and implemented it. There is this massive collusion between the corporates and the government and this is what we call crony capitalism. Corporates dictate what they need a laws are enacted to suit their fancies. What are your views on BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi as potential PM candidates?  I think there is a lot of media hype on Modi. Look at the condition of farmers, health and malnutrition in Gujarat. You need to see whether the state is progressing or not. I think there is a lot of hype. There are things that are being hidden. What is his policy on farmers or on corporates or on favouring certain corporates? No one is talking about it. Here, even in Madhya Pradesh, it’s no longer about BJP it’s only about Modi, Modi and more Modi. Hype without facts. What about Rahul? Rahul Gandhi to be very serious, I do not think is bright enough or serious enough to understand problems of common people. I don’t think he has the capacity. [caption id=“attachment_1482681” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Dhingra campaigning in the streets of Bhopal.[/caption] Many see activists as opposed to development. When the Kudankulam protests happened, the same argument came up. Where do you stand vis-a-vis industry and growth? I think there is no dialogue with people in our current system. This is simply corporation dictating and government following. Second, we have a horrible track record of environment violations and we have not cared enough to address any or most of them. There is a backlash because of that. And if you look across the country, there are a lot of activists that have joined AAP. This is because there are masses of people that are fighting against certain problems in their area and there their voices have not been heard at all. They have done everything from the outside with every non-violent trick in the book to get the government to listen. The government does not want to listen to us and are more interested in Foreign Direct Investment and in the interest of corporations. We are not against development. We just have to question who this development is for and how much of an impact it is going to have on the environment and our natural resources. It is a very uneven scale right now. With AAP, we want to make it more equitable than what it is right now. The GoM constituted to look at handling toxic waste appears to be dragging its feet.  Are you hopeful of any change? Or do you think you have to be a part of the system to finally fix things? They don’t want to do it. When we have people like Arun Jaitley of the BJP giving his opinion to Dow saying they are not liable and on the other hand we have Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress representing Dow and also giving a legal opinion that Dow should not be held accountable, these governments cannot be trusted to look at the interests of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims. The BJP has also received money from Dow. Toxic waste is not rocket science, it’s lack of will. The last 10 year episode has focused on just five percent of the waste which is 350 metric tonnes. They are not even concerned at looking at the bigger problem - the waste sitting outside which is responsible for the spread of contamination to new places. That’s the reason why we have 22 communities which, till date, get contaminated water. The government wants to set up nuclear plants, they want to go to Mars but they cannot figure out how to deal with 350 metric tonnes? Come on! Recently new evidence submitted in a US court could see some hope for the victims. Is there a possibility of Dow being held? This is another case where the government is not with the victims. This is a case we are fighting for the victims from affected communities in a US court. We had submitted new evidence to the court on contamination. But we can only do so much because the land is owned by the government of Madhya Pradesh. They should become a party in the case. We have been trying to convince them for the last 4 years. Whose interest is the MP government working in? All they have to do is be present in the US court and say ‘Yes we want Union Carbide to pay so much for the clean up’ but they refuse to do that