As Barack Obama's administration was attacking BP over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill (death toll: 15), one of the president's most trusted advisers was writing an email to an Indian official in which it was implied that if the New Delhi government did not shut up about the 1984 Bhopal gas leak (death toll: up to 16,000), there might be a "chilling effect" on investment.
The Bhopal tragedy (above), in which deadly methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the US-owned Union Carbide pesticide plant in the central Indian city, remains the world's worst industrial accident. Up to 16,000 people were killed and another 558,125 injured. Chemicals from the plant are believed still to be contaminating groundwater supplies in the area.
Five years after the tragedy, Union Carbide agreed to pay $470 million in compensation to the victims. The company was bought by another US company, Dow Chemical, in 2001, which claimed the affair had been resolved.
However, the Bhopal Medical Appeal says Union Carbide remains liable for "environmental devastation", because it was not included in the 1989 settlement. And the Indian government is reportedly deciding whether Dow should be held liable for an additional $200m in compensation.
The current furore is the result of an email exchange obtained by India's Times Now television channel.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Indian Planning Commission, wrote to Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser Michael Froman to lobby for US backing in India's application for World Bank funds.
In the course of the exchange, which neither side has denied, Froman writes: "While I've got you, we are hearing a lot of noise about the Dow Chemical issue. I trust that you are monitoring it carefully.
"I am not familiar with all the details, but I think we want to avoid developments which put a chilling effect on our investment relationship."
The exchange has been taken in India as implying that US backing could be relied upon only if India pulled back from its pursuit of further damages from Dow.
Following the fuss over the BP oil spill, and the establishment of a $20bn compensation fund for people affected by it, critics are suggesting that the Obama administration believes the lives of Indians are cheaper than the livelihoods of Louisiana shrimpers.
The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal said the leaked email showed the US government was "not pursuing the same levels of accountability from American Dow Chemical as it has from BP" and that it "values profit over people, when the profit benefits American corporations".
Froman has denied suggestions of intimidation, saying: "I want to make clear that I was not making any link between what are two separate and distinct issues nor issuing a 'threat' of any sort."
President Obama is due to visit India in November. With New Delhi already upset at the arming of Pakistan by the US, the president can ill afford a poisonous and intractable issue such as Bhopal to dominate headlines. ·
