'Impossible that Anderson left without PM, HM nod'

Picking holes in the statement of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Arjun Singh on Union Carbide Corporation CEO Warren Anderson's exit from India after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the Bharatiya Janata Party asked the government and Congress to come clear on the issue on Thursday.

"The government is hiding the truth in the Warren Anderson case. Both Houses of Parliament have the right to know the truth. Arjun Singh has said he (Anderson) was allowed to go on home minister's orders.

"I do not think this was possible without the (then) external affairs minister and prime minister knowing about it. They are responsible," Deputy Leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde said.

The BJP insisted that if the right laws had been slapped on the guilty, detaining Anderson would not have been difficult.

"Both the government and the Congress should tell the nation the truth and apologise if it is wrong," Munde demanded.

Asked if BJP felt the government would take up Anderson's case when US President Barack Obama visits India in November, Munde said, "I don't believe this government will do anything."

Government today said there were no no records of calls made by home ministry officials before the exit Anderson from India in December 1984, and on the "safe passage" assurance reportedly given to him.

A day after Arjun Singh sought to point fingers at P V Narasimha for the exit of former Anderson from India, an accused in the Bhopal gas disaster case, Home Minister P Chidambaram also gave a clean chit to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the Rajya Sabha.