Articles by Ramesh Jaura

various investigations. The Morcha members produced the various charters of demands which they had submitted to the representatives of the government, including both the former and the present chief ministers, since January 1985 and also referred to the ongoing struggle of the gas victims for collection of such evidence and subsequent government inaction towards this end thus weakening the victims' case. The Morcha member had further made constructive suggestions tor collecting whatever evidence was still available even at that late stage. These suggestions were submitted to the Director, Claims, in November 1985 through a memo- randum, and, when no positive response was available, were incorporated in a writ petition filed in the M P High Court. These suggestions consisted of opthalmological measuiements to assess damage to the eyes, measurements by an electronic spirometer and pulmonary function machine to assess damage to the respiratory system, exercise tolerence tests to assess the loss of physical capacity, estimation of urinary thiocyanate levels to quantify the levels of cyanide m the body and neurological tests to assess the damage to the nervous system and senses. The lawyers agreed that all such tests would lead to generation of contributory evidence of significant value and opined that any further delay in collecting such data would be harm fillto the interests of the gas victims. It was not however, clear if the US attorneys had in fact advised the government on the crucial relevance of such data and the urgent need to collect the same.

August 3, 1985 WEST EUROPE New Dimension in Franco-German Ties Ramesh Jaura THE post-war co-operation between Federal Republic of Germany and France promises to assume significant new dimensions

Soviet trading organisations will succeed in their effort with the engineering industries delegation which was in Moscow during Rajiv Gandhi's visit to the USSR.

WEST GERMANY Waiting for Honecker Ramesh Jaura EVEN the opponent of the centre-right coalition government, headed by Chancellor Helmut Kohl, admit that contrary to widespread expectations it has been pursuing "a good and reasonable policy" towards the GDR, the other German state. Instead of adopting a confrontationist approach, as it did while in opposition, the West German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister Christian Socialist Union (CSU), which are the dominant coalition partners, have pleasantly surprised critics ever since they took over the reins of power in October 1982.

Hectic East-West Contacts Ramesh Jaura THE persistent, hectic, political contacts between the two German states of FRG and GDR have caused concern among their respective smaller allies. The reason: the revival of the phrase 'Wiedervercingung'