By IANS,
New Delhi: The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Monday said it will convey the concerns of the Bhopal gas disaster victims to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regarding the sponsorship deal struck by Dow Chemicals with the 2012 London Games organisers.
IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra said former Olympians, IOA, and the government are not happy that the Games should be associated with any “tainted” sponsors.
The Indian government has asked the IOA to take up the sponsorship deal with Dow Chemicals with the London organisers and ask them to reconsider their move.
Dow bought US chemical firm Union Carbide whose Indian subsidiary’s Bhopal plant leaked toxic methyl isocyanate gas in 1984, killing thousands of people in what is described as the world’s worst industrial disaster.
“We will discuss this issue in our executive board and general body meeting Dec 15,” Malhotra said in a statement here.
“We understand the feelings of the players, government and the NGOs. We will discuss it seriously and see what we can do at our level. We will also keep the government in the loop.”
“We will try to make the games organisers aware of the feeling of the people who have suffered in that tragedy. It is not only the Indians who are protesting this sponsorship, there has been an outcry against this world over from various NGO’s and other bodies. It is no longer a local issue,” he said.
IOA has received representations from several former Olympians and NGOs protesting the London Games organisers’ links with Dow Chemicals.
Dow Chemicals will foot the bill of a temporary decorative wrap over London’s Olympic stadium and this move has created “dismay amongst the victims and others who see Olympic Games as celebration of best of human spirits”.
“The IOA is bound by the Olympic charter and we will play our role within the framework of this charter,” Malhotra said.
The Bhopal victims and the activists fighting their cases are unhappy over the woefully inadequate quantum of compensation.
Union Carbide, the then owners of the pesticide plant, paid $470 million as settlement package for the victims in 1989 and 10 years later the unit was bought over by Dow Chemicals. Now the Indian government has demanded over $1 billion more as compensation.
There has been a wave of resentment in the country over Dow’s sponsorship of the London Games. The state of Madhya Pradesh has demanded the Games boycott by India as in its capital Bhopal thousands died and thousands are still reeling under the after-effects of the disaster.