India-Pakistan Talks Seek to Move Past Accusations
“Since Pakistan was created in 1947, India-Pakistan relations have ranged from cautious distrust to outright hostility and war. The attack on India's business capital Mumbai in November 2008 by terrorists based in Pakistan put a new chill on relations between the two nuclear-weapons states. Later this week, two of the senior-most members of the Indian government, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Union Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, will travel to Pakistan in what is being pitched as a shift of approach from an accusatory mode to an exploratory mode,” says Asia Society Associate Fellow Mira Kamdar.
“Rather than give Pakistan a laundry list of complaints with the demand they be addressed, foremost among them the failure of Pakistan to bring the individuals responsible for planning the 2008 Mumbai attack to justice as well as those responsible for the attacks on India's embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2008 and 2009, the Indians say they are looking to explore where the two countries can find common ground in addressing terrorist groups which increasingly set their sights on targets within Pakistan as well. The meeting follows the announcement by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that his twin priorities are boosting India's annual growth rate to 10 percent and improving relations with Pakistan. Continuous attacks by terrorists based in Pakistan or believed to be supported by Pakistan on Indian targets both within India and in Afghanistan are a threat to India's economic and strategic ambitions.”
Mira adds: “The Group of Ministers convened at the request of India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take a fresh look into the 1984 Union Carbide toxic gas leak in Bhopal is to present its report today. The report is said to recommend that India demand the extradition from the United States of Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide at the time of the disaster, to ask India's Supreme Court to reconsider its prior decision diluting the charges against those accused of lapses in responsibility, and for liability charges against the Dow Chemical Company, which has since purchased Union Carbide. The contrast between India's response to the 1984 Union Carbide chemical disaster in Bhopal and that of the United States to the crude oil leak from a BP deep water well in the Gulf of Mexico became too stark when an Indian court finally handed down the first judgment in the Bhopal case on June 7 -- 26 years after the disaster occurred. The seven surviving Indian managers were fined the equivalent of $2,100 and promptly released on bail. The Bhopal gas leak killed some 20,000 people and injured tens of thousands more. The toxic residue from the leak in the soil and water near the former pesticide plant has never been cleaned up, and residents suffer high rates of cancer, birth defects and other debilitating health woes. Anderson was spirited out of India apparently with the help of the Indian government. Union Carbide paid damages in a settlement with the Indian government of $470 million, much of which never reached the victims. The convergence of the BP and the Bhopal disasters has also scuttled a nuclear liability cap the Obama administration had been pressing Singh’s government to get his parliament to pass in order to facilitate the constructions of nuclear plants in India by American corporations.”
Mira is in New York. To arrange an interview, contact the Asia Society communications department at 212-327-9271 or [email protected].