PRESS RELEASE- Hundreds of Survivors of Bhopal gas disaster protest at Dow Chemical Mumbai

Press Statement

April 9, 2013

 

200 survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster , alongwith 100 plus activists from Mumbai today demonstrated at the office of Dow Chemical International Private Ltd. at Vikhroli demanding that its parent company in USA clean up toxic contamination from soil and ground water in and around Union Carbide’s abandoned factory. The protestors also demanded that Dow Chemical that owns Union Carbide, USA produce the absconding corporation charged with culpable homicide in the Bhopal court.

 

The survivors said that they were protesting against Dow Chemical’s business in hazardous chemicals in India while the disaster was still continuing in Bhopal with mounting deaths among the survivors and health problems in the next generation.

 

The demonstrators included women and children who have chronic illnesses from drinking local ground water contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals from hazardous wastes recklessly dumped by Union Carbide. Mr. Nawab Khan of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha said that following its take over of Union Carbide in 2001, Dow Chemical is responsible for the horrific birth defects and other health damages caused due to ground water contamination.

 

Mr. Balkrishna Namdeo of Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogi Sangharsh Morcha said that Dow Chemical remains to pay additional compensation for the deaths and health damages caused by its subsidiary through the December 1984 gas disaster. He said that in 1989 Union Carbide had paid compensation only for 3, 828 deaths whereas the total number of deaths has crossed 25, 000. Likewise, Union Carbide has paid compensation for injuries to 1,02, 000 persons whereas the actual number of persons injured by the disaster according to the state and central governments is 5,68, 293.

 

Ms. Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action said that in response to her organization’s application the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal will soon be summoning Dow Chemical’s authorized representative from USA and ask them to show cause why it does not produce its 100 % subsidiary Union Carbide that is absconding from charges of culpable homicide for the last 21 years.

 

Holding a banner saying “No justice in Bhopal, No business in India” Safreen Khan of Children against Dow/Carbide said that the next generation of the survivors of the Bhopal disaster is now ready to carry on with the struggle initiated by their parents. She said that Dow Chemical is facing criminal charges of bribing officials in the central agricultural ministry and has been blacklisted by the central government.

 

 

 

Rashida Bi, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh 94256 88215

Nawab Khan, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha 9302792493

Balkrishna Namdeo, Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha 9826345423

Satinath Sarangi, Rachna Dhingra, Bhopal Group for Information and Action 9826167369

Safreen Khan Children Against Dow Carbide

Contact : c/o 44, Sant Kanwar Ram Nagar, Berasia Road, Bhopal Email: justiceinbhopal@yahoo.co.in

 

FOR PICTURES CLICK HERE

 

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Related articles

• Bhopal gas victims suffer from new abnormalities (news.in.msn.com)
• Activists seek political support for Bhopal gas victims (firstpost.com)
• Dow Chemical Company (sourcewatch.org)

 

Hindu outfit forces artist to take painting off exhibition #Censorship #FOE

Bella Jaisinghani, TNN | Apr 9, 2013,

Painter Eleena Banik had painted Goddess Kali without the usual garland of skulls and another of Goddess Durga wearing a fig leaf cover of strawberries.

MUMBAI: Activists of the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti (HJS) Saturday forced a Kolkata-based painter to remove two canvases depicting Hindu goddesses in the nude. The Jehangir Art Gallerythat was hosting the exhibition, as well as officers of Colaba police station, urged her to comply in the interest of peace.

Painter Eleena Banik had painted Goddess Kali without the usual garland of skulls and another of Goddess Durga wearing a fig leaf cover of strawberries. “As an artist I retain the freedom to interpret my culture. Those who object to my art, or of M F Husain and Akbar Padamsee, have not read Hindu mythology where our deities are depicted nude. I drew Durga this way to empower women after the Delhi gangrape,” she said.

Banik accused Varsha Thakar of the HJS of “threatening her” and “forcibly taking photographs” of the paintings. “She arrived at the gallery on Saturday and asked why I had painted cherries on the figure of a female Hindu deity. I pointed out that they were strawberries and cited my rights as an artist to draw things the way I see them. I could draw a tree in violet colour and nobody could object,” she said. Thakar telephoned Colaba police station and senior police inspector Vinod Sawant arrived and requested Banik to remove the artworks for public peace. Thakar said, “We are not against artistic freedom but would like to know what connection can be drawn between the gangrape victim and a goddess. Why is it that artists take liberty with certain communities and are careful not to hurt others.” Shivaji Vatkar of HJS said they would move court if Banik didn’t remove the pictures from her website.

Banik countered she had shown the Kali painting in India and in London without incident.

Incidentally Jehangir Art Gallery had urged her to remove a painting on the opening day of the exhibition on April 2. Gallery director K G Menon said, “We are mindful to not display artworks that can offend people’s religious sensibilities.Our staff found the canvas of Durga offensive and because children and senior citizens alike visit the gallery, we urged her to take it down. She chose not to do so, and on April 6, the HJS arrived to object.”

Inspector Sanjeev Mandlik of Colaba said the matter was “sorted out” between the artist and protestors.

“The painter felt she had the right to express herself while the HJS argued that self-expression did not include the right to offend religious sensibilities. We requested her to remove the artworks and she did,” Mandlik said.

 

Maharashtra’s role exposed during Emergency in India #Vaw

April 9, 2013, TNN

Documents released by WikiLeaks have also revealed that Maharashtra had proposed a “compulsory sterilization legislation’’ during Emergency.

Wikileaks has a document dated September 10, 1976 classified as “Limited Official Use’’ and marked to: Department of Health Education and Welfare; Chennai; Kolkata; Mumbai.

It was the “first proposed legislation in the world dealing with compulsory sterilization’’ and it had proposed a “six month to two years jail term for persons not adhering to the child limit.’’ TNN

 

WikiLeaks: American mole in Indira Gandhi’s household during Emergency?

Subodh Varma, TNN | Apr 9, 2013, 04.18 AM IST

A file photo of Indira Gandhi. Latest Wikileaks cables have hinted at the presence of a US mole in former PM’s household during Emergency.

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NEW DELHI: Even though the US establishment struggled during the Emergencyto read Indira Gandhi’s political moves, it seemed to have had a source in the Gandhi household between 1975 and 1977.According to the latest cables released byWikileaks, on a few instances the dispatches from the US Embassy in New Delhi repeatedly refers to a “household” source and “sources close to the PM’s household.”

By the middle of 1976 the cables had began to accurately predict that Gandhi would be calling national elections in 1977. It is not clear how much of help they had received from this Gandhi household source.

A day after Indira Gandhi announced the emergency on June 26, 1975; a US Embassy cable said the key figures behind her move were sonSanjay Gandhi and her secretary R K Dhawan. “This is confirmed by a source close to the PM’s household. Both are non-ideological, extremely authoritarian in their general approach, and focused only on keeping Mrs. Gandhi in power,” the dispatch said.

The Embassy spoke to at least four prominent Congress MPs since Emergency was declared the previous day, before sending out the cable. “They differ on timing, some suggesting that Emergency will last no more than two-three months, others six months as the maximum. Similarly, some think the elections will be held on schedule at the end of this year, others that they may possibly be postponed till late in 1976 to give the PM an opportunity to show real progress in social/economic reforms,” cable said.

On a report regarding possible re-arrest of Charan Singh, again the cables quotes a “household” source on what Sanjay’s stand on the issue was.

By December, 1975, the cables had begun to detail the growing strength and tightening grip of Sanjay . “Under his aegis, the Youth Congress is organizing itself for a more activist role as the Congress’s cadre arm,” one cable said. It pointed out that Sanjay has a significant and growing number of “allies” within the council of ministers and the top levels of the bureaucracy who also exert influence on major policy decisions. “Sanjay has so far proceeded slowly, methodically and successfully. But the chances for him to make mistakes or to build up an anti-Sanjay — and indirectly an anti-Mrs Gandhi-lobby may increase as he attempts to widen his personal influence and activities and operates more publicly,” it accurately predicted.

By February, 1976, the cables predicted that Mrs Gandhi’s future decisions would probably be influenced by a swelling cynicism and resentment among the urban educated including the bureaucracy about the increasingly personalised nature of the regime she has been building. “Many who supported the emergency gains in discipline and efficiency are now bitterly criticizing, or at the very least, increasingly uneasy, over the rate at which Sanjay Gandhi is expanding her personal influence with his mother’s assistance in apparent preparation for the succession. Influential opinion makers, including some Congressmen, are becoming progressively less guarded in their private criticism of Mrs Gandhi, the suppression of political and press freedom and the expanding activities of the domestic intelligence apparatus,” the cable said.