India Scorns Union Carbide Bhopal Offer

Claiming to be the sole legal representative for victims of the Bhopal gas disaster, India’s government on Monday assailed an announced $350-million settlement between Union Carbide and the victims’ private lawyers as “totally unacceptable.”

“It has to be pointed out that there cannot be any settlement without agreement by the government of India,” the Ministry of Chemicals said in a statement.

Speaking privately, angry Indian officials asserted that Union Carbide’s announcement of a settlement places the government of Rajiv Gandhi in a difficult political position, reducing the possibility of any compromise by New Delhi authorities. Members of Gandhi’s Congress-I Party and opposition leaders joined Parliament on Monday to condemn the settlement.

The bitterly worded government statement accused Union Carbide of employing a strategy to “ensure that the case is settled for a very low amount.”

Union Carbide of Danbury, Conn., was the principal owner of the Bhopal pesticides plant that leaked poisonous methyl isocyanate gas into a surrounding slum area in December, 1984, killing more than 2,000 people and injuring 200,000. One of history’s worst industrial accidents, it provoked dozens of lawsuits in U.S. courts seeking billions of dollars in damages.

The suits were consolidated in New York under U.S. District Judge John Keenan. After the accident, the Indian Parliament passed a law designating the government as sole representative of the victims and their families, and a Minneapolis law firm was hired to represent these Indian interests in federal court.

U.S. Judge’s Approval Needed

The settlement announced Sunday by Union Carbide was reached with plaintiffs’ lawyers, who descended on Bhopal, a central Indian city, after the accident. The company announcement said that victims of the gas leak would receive $500 million to $600 million over the life of the payment plan if the settlement is approved by Judge Keenan.

The difference between the proposed $350-million award and those final figures would come in interest from a fund to be set up for the Indian plaintiffs. Sources here said that $600 million was the amount originally sought by the government.

“The private plaintiffs’ attorneys position is different from that of the government of India,” the official statement here said.

Privately, Indian officials, including senior Law Ministry officials attending a dinner reception for U.S. Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III in New Delhi, were furious at Union Carbide’s announcement.

“Union Carbide has violated confidentiality restrictions placed by the judge,” one official charged. Another said that the government is about to release a computer list of several hundred thousand names and addresses of persons it says are victims that it represents.

In anticipation of a large settlement, the government has already spent more than $25 million in the Bhopal area on disaster relief.