India takes diplomatic route to target Dow

India has decided to launch a diplomatic offensive against US-based Dow Chemical through its missions abroad after it failed to convince the London Olympics Committee (LOC) to drop the firm as the main sponsor for its role in the 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Apr 9, 2012, 24:45:31 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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India has decided to launch a diplomatic offensive against US-based Dow Chemical through its missions abroad after it failed to convince the London Olympics Committee (LOC) to drop the firm as the main sponsor for its role in the 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy.

LOC had, in fact, claimed that Dow Chemicals has paid money to Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for the Commonwealth Games in 2010. During a presentation to Indian High Commission in London, the committee said the money was given for promotion of sports in India.

Hit back by the LOC’s counter, the sport ministry has sought a reply from the association.

“We are still waiting for IOA’s reply,” a senior ministry functionary said, adding that this fact came into light only after the presentation.

“It is pure double standard on part of IOA,” said Rachna Dingra, spokesperson of Bhopal victims.

What has hurt the ministry most is its failure to convince the Olympic torch-bearers across the world about the past of Dow Chemicals and withdrawal of its sponsorship.

“It was just mere posturing on behalf of the sports ministry,” Dhingra said.

The government now wants to take the offence against the company a step ahead. In this bid, the government has decided to use the diplomatic channel to appraise countries participating in the London Olympics about the plight of victims of Bhopal gas tragedy.

“A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting between sports secretary and external affairs secretary,” the official said.

“It would serve to remind the rest of the world that the tragedy of Bhopal lingers on and evokes deep public sympathy in the country for innocent victims”.

The external affairs ministry has written to its high commission and embassies across the world to conduct a special reach out programme for the same.

Officials admit that it will have no impact as India has yet not decided to boycott the games. As of now, even the country’s official sports ministry delegation will be participating in the opening ceremony of London Olympics.

Dingra said such moves will not have any impact till the government decides to boycott the games and stand for the cause of 25,000 people killed in Bhopal.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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