As Arjun Singh was the chief minister at that time, it was surmised that the Chief Secretary's orders must have come at the behest of Arjun Singh. It was further speculated that Arjun Singh must have been following the instructions of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. And Rajiv Gandhi must have been under the pressure of the then Ronald Reagan administration of the USA.

Clearly, except for the statement of the Collector, all the conclusions were based on surmises. Brahmaswaroop is no more and so is Rajiv Gandhi. And Mr. Arjun Singh seems to have taken a maun vrat. It would, of course, be childish to expect that the US would confirm or deny it exerted pressure on the Indian government to secure the release of Anderson. That leaves us only with the statement of the then Collector.

What added spice to the Anderson saga was a statement by Digvijay Singh — then a member of the Arjun Singh cabinet and now an AICC general secretary — that US pressure must have been instrumental in the release of Anderson. Digvijay's statement shifted the focus from Arjun Singh to Rajiv Gandhi. It is obvious that no foreign government would exert pressure on the head of a state or provincial government directly. Convention and protocol demands that a foreign power seeking a favour from any country would approach the head of government of that country.

The moment the focus shifted to Rajiv Gandhi, frenetic efforts began to save the prestige of late Rajiv Gandhi. The Congress, which till then was only advising Arjun Singh to reveal all, was galvanised into action. For, after all, Rajiv Gandhi is not only the party's former top leader but also happens to be the husband of Sonia Gandhi. The Congress now wants Arjun Singh to own up the entire responsibility for Anderson's release. Arjun Singh, however, does not seem to in a mood to oblige. At present, Arjun Singh is in political wilderness. The Congress is ignoring him. A shrewd politician — as he is — Arjun Singh may agree to own up the responsibility but only after extracting a price for the same. He is not meeting the Press but his exclusive interview to the Hindustan Times correspondent did not reveal much adding to the confusion further. He now says that his autobiography, to be published soon, will bare all.

These developments have given the Arjun Singh detractors a golden opportunity to settle scores with him. And the number of his detractors is not small. Former AICC spokesperson Satyavrat Chaturvedi was one of the first to launch an attack on Arjun Singh. MP has a long history of Brahmin-Thakur rivalry and Chaturvedi was at the receiving end when Digvijay Singh was the Chief Minister of the state for ten years. He had resigned from the state assembly in protest against his humiliation. .

Satyavrat Chaturvedi's mother Vidyavati Chaturvedi was a member of the Lok Sabha and was a close associate of Late PC Sethi, a former chief minister and Union Cabinet minister. Arjun Singh did not see eye to eye with Sethi.

Another Arjun Singh baiter, state Congress chief Suresh Pachauri has publicly urged Arjun Singh to “break his silence and tell the truth”.

Arjun Singh's detractors feel that no matter what stand Arjun Singh takes, it would be a win-win situation for them. If he confesses that Anderson was released on his orders, he may have to face political and legal consequences. Already, several cases have been filed in Bhopal courts, seeking punishment for those who let Anderson fly away. And in the event Arjun Singh blames pressure from the Central government for his decision, he would have to face the wrath of Sonia Gandhi.

Arjun Singh's daughter Beena Singh has told the media that her father was a seasoned politician who would break his silence at the right moment. His son Ajay Singh, when pressed for a comment, categorically stated that he was not his father's spokesperson.

In MP's Congress politics, Digvijay Singh-Ajay Singh faction, which enjoys the patronage of Arjun Singh, is at loggerheads with the faction led by Suresh Pachauri. The Pachauri group is waiting eagerly for Arjun Singh to shift the blame on Rajiv Gandhi. That, it feels, would have a serious adverse fallout on the political future of Ajay Singh and Digvijay Singh.

As for the BJP, it received a rude jolt when its veteran leader Babulal Gaur - who is a former chief minister and has been representing one of the assembly constituencies in Bhopal for over three decades - told the media that successive Central governments were responsible for the sad plight of the gas victims and that the NDA governments were equally to be blamed. He said that as the gas relief minister of the state, he wrote numerous letters to the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee but got no response. “After 1990, the Centre did not provide any financial assistance for the gas victims. I wrote to Atalji and Advaniji but still nothing happened”, he said.

Babulal Gaur's relations with the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan are not exactly cordial. The Chauhan group seized upon this opportunity to launch a vicious campaign against Gaur. Having realised the faux pas he had committed, Gaur immediately made amends and came out with a lengthy clarification, saying, among other things that by the time the NDA government came to power in the Centre in 1998, “almost everything was already settled and the Government could do precious little”.

Meanwhile, the state government has sacked Mr. Swaraj Puri from the membership of the “Grievances Redressal cell of the state Narmada Valley Development authority. Puri - a former DGP of the state police enjoyed the status of a Minister of state. His fault was that he escorted Anderson from the airport to the Union Carbide Guest House and then back to airport on December 7, 1984. At that time, he was the SP of Bhopal.

Gas tragedy is the theme around which the politics in Madhya Pradesh is presently revolving. Every party concerned is trying to exploit it to its own advantage. Who succeeds and who fails, is yet to be seen. (IPA)