External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday attributed the mysterious escape of Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson from India after the December 2, 1984 gas tragedy in his chemical factory in Bhopal to a quid-pro-quo by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to secure freedom to his childhood friend jailed in the U.S. for 35 years. Swaraj taunted Rahul Gandhi to ask his mother, “Mumma, Mumma, how my father released murderer of 15,000 people.”
But who was this childhood friend? Swaraj mentioned that Rajiv was keen to secure the release of his friend’s son Adil Shahryar who was serving 35 years in a US jail. She quoted Arjun Singh’s book, which claimed that Rajiv Gandhi had ordered him to make arrangements for Anderson’s safe passage to the US. Shahryar is the son of India’s former ambassador to Spain and long time chairman of the Trade Fair Authority of India Muhammad Yunus, relative of iconic leader Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, who though a leader of Congress stayed in Pakistan after partition. Shahryar was a boyhood friend of Rajiv Gandhi. Shahryar was arrested in August 1981 by Miami state authorities on charge of attempting to set fire to his room at the Sheraton Beach Hotel. He was soon remanded in custody of US authorities.
Anderson was arrested in Bhopal on that fateful day, only to be bailed out, put on the State plane to fly to New Delhi from where he flew to the U.S. same evening, never to return to India to stand trial in the lethal gas leak from his factory that killed over 3,000 and maimed not less than 50,000 people.
Sushma Swaraj referred to then Madhya Pradesh chief minister late Arjun Singh's autobiography in which he wrote about Rajiv Gandhi whispering in his ear to release Anderson and that what he was told will always remain secret and vanish with his death (Mere saath chita me bhasm ho jayega.) Sushma said the secret, however, fell out after six months.
Rajiv Gandhi had allowed Anderson to flee as a "quid-pro-quo" arrangement with the United States on giving Presidential pardon to Adil Shahryar. In Sushma's word, Adil sentenced to 35 years for various crimes was given a Presidential pardon by US President Ronald Reagan on June 11, 1985, the day Rajiv Gandhi landed in the U.S. Rajiv Gandhi brought back Adil to India in exchange of Anderson, she added.
