An organisation representing the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy said that Dominique Lapierre and Javier Moro had created confusion and reduced the seriousness of the tragedy through their book ''It was five past midnight in Bhopal''. ''I have not read the novel, but the facts mentioned in the book which have been referred to, by the print media, create confusion among the people,'' Convenor of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan Abdul Jabbar said. Jabbar said that he was told that the book cites failure to replace a piece of teflon as reason for the tragedy. This would send a wrong signal to the world community that a small thing was responsible for the tragedy, he said, adding,'' this will also support the stance of union carbide factory that negligence of employees was behind the tragedy.'' Chief Minister Digvijay Singh released the book in the presence of the two authors. The book has mentioned about non-replacement of a small plastic blade, which led to the disaster during intervening night of December 2 and 3 in 1984.
Authors Lapierre and Moro said that it was compulsory to replace the blade after a certain period of time. The blade was placed in a pipe through which gas used to flow.
The book mentions that the blade was not replaced on the due date as the concerned worker had gone to listen 'Mushaira', on the night when the incident occurred.
While objecting to the episode, Jabbar said, ''It was against the facts.'' The 'safety audit', conducted in 1982 to ensure safety of industries in Bhopal, revealed that there were 30 shortcomings, of which 11 were reportedly related to MIC plant, he added.
Bureau Report