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March 28, 2008

UK supporters confront Indian officials over Bhopal

March 27th, 2008, Edinburgh

Scotland-based Bhopal supporters gather outside the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh

A delegation of Members of the Scottish Parliament, campaign groups and supporters met with the Indian Consul General in Scotland on Thursday in solidarity with the padyatris and in support of their demands.

Twenty five people walked from the Scottish Parliament to the Indian Consulate and handed in letters from the paliamentary cross-party group on international development, Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth Scotland, the Scottish Trades Union Congress and Scottish Hazards Campaign as well as about 100 postcards signed by concerned citizens.

Centre of photo: Aileen Campbell MSP and Bill Wilson MSP of Scottish Nationalist Party. Between and behind them: Patrick Harvie MSP of Scottish Green Party

Although international issues are not within the remit of the devolved parliament in Scotland, members of the parliament are able to raise international issues which are of concern to Scottish citizens.

Whilst singing group 'protest in harmony' sang outside the consulate, the Consul General Ramesh Chander and Consul S.N.Srinivasan spent a half hour meeting with three MSPs (Patrick Harvie of Scottish Green Party, Aileen Campbell and Bill Wilson of Scottish Nationalist Party), John Watson of Amnesty International, Owen Davis of Friends of the Earth Scotland and myself.

'Protest in Harmony' at the Indian consulate, Edinburgh

Mr Chander provided a copy of the official version of what the government of India is already doing for survivors and we were able to counter with the need for a Commission with teeth to ensure health, water etc needs were met, and the urgency of pursuing Dow in court.

Outside the Indian Consulate in Edinburgh. Left to Right: Eurig Scandrett; Patrick Harvie MSP (Scottish Green Party); Consul General Ramesh Chander; Consul Mr. S.N.Srinivasan; Aileen Campbell MSP (Scottish Nationalist Party); John Watson (Amnesty International)

The meeting was polite and cordial and the Consul General assured us that our concerns would be conveyed to the Prime Minister. He emphasised that India is a democracy and said he was sure that the Dr Singh would be willing to meet with the padyatris to hear their demands. We hope he's right.

Eurig Scandrett
Lecturer in Sociology
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

March 27th, 2008, London

Five of us travelled from Brighton to London carrying our solidarity bannner, 'umbrage' umbrella and 1000 leaflets about the fax action targetting the Prime Minister's office. In London we met with supporters at Pan-uk and collected a number of 'walk your talk' placards showing photos of child deformities caused by Carbide's factory in Bhopal.

We caught public transport to Parliament Square where we were met by a group of Bhopal supporters. Two were familiar faces: recent volunteers at Sambhavana, one of us had met them at last year's dharna site in Newmarket, Bhopal.

We had about 1.5 miles to walk until the Indian High Commission, and we imagined ourselves walking in step with the Padyatris as they marched the last few kilometres to Jantar Mantar at the same time.

As we walked we handed out the leaflets asking people to fax the Manmohan Singh, containing also facts, history and information on the padyatra campaign.

All 20 of us carried placards.

En route a dreadlocked rasta dressed in a dazzling, silky stars and stripes suit and Uncle Sam hat saw us coming, guessed our banners had something to do with the u.s.a. and sheepishly appologised [on behalf of the usa or for his awful dress sense, we weren't quite sure].

Whatever leaflets were left were distributed outside the Indian High Commission.

In the alleged absence of the High Commissioner himself, who was purportedly away on business in Delhi, officials comprising the Coordination Minister and one other came out to collect the materials we had brought them. We asked them to wait and remain outside until we'd finished a poetry reading and cleared our throats with some lusty chanting.

We presented the officials - who were sticking uncomfortably to the security locked main entrance of the High Commission - with a copy of the Bhopal Early Day Motion tabled in the House of Commons the previous day and an UK Bhopal supporters' petition, accompanied by a letter from the Bhopal Medical Appeal, the ICJB and PAN-UK and PAN-Europe. We took time to explain the purpose of the padyatra and the strength of feeling across the UK and elsewhere about the continuing abuse of the Bhopali's rights. We were assured that our message would be passed to Manmohan Singh, though imminent events were about to cast doubt upon the word of these particular representatives of India.

Indian officials receive our material

The officials retreated inside, leaving the stage set for four year old Sameera to belt out an unceasing chant of "justice for Bhopal".

Four year old Sameera makes an impression against the windows of the Indian High Commission

Not five minutes passed before the High Commissioner himself arrived in his ambassadorial car and scuttled straight into the safety of his office, face turned firmly away from the protest positioned a few feet away.

Proof that the High Commissioner was 'in station' after all

Evidently, his eminence, Mr Shiv Shankar Mukherjee was too intimidated to pause and talk to the closest protestor Claire, bearer of the placard "Sweep Dow Out".

We continued our chants and talked to the number of people interested enough to stop. We also leafleted the 50 or so people queueing for visas around the corner.

Some of the supporters had travelled for 3 hours to join us. We stayed for around 2 hours and made sure that the officials inside the building knew the entire time that we were there.

Posted by tim at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)

March 26, 2008

UK parliamentarians support the padyatris

March 26th, 2008, London -- UK member of parliament Des Turner filed Early Day Motion 1266 in the Houses of Parliament, London, in express support of the aims of the Bhopal padyatra and dharna at Jantar Mantar.

Bhopal 23 Years On - Early Day Motion 1266, Houses of Parliament, London, UK

Turner, Desmond

That this House deplores the continuing suffering of the people of Bhopal 23 years after the world's worst industrial disaster; notes that Amnesty International has reported ongoing violations of human rights, that contaminated factory land is still not properly cleaned up, that high quantities of organochlorines and lead pollute local water supplies, that there are continuing occurrences of birth deformities and ill health and that 15 people die each month as a result; congratulates the work of the Sambhavna medical clinic in treating victims of gas and water poisoning and that of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal in trying to make the government of India meet its obligations to provide clean water and adequate medical, social and economic rehabilitation; and further applauds the campaign for pursuing polluter pays principles against Dow Chemical and extradition of its fugitive subsidiary Union Carbide, which refuses to face charges in India of culpable homicide in connection with the deaths of 23,000 people.

Signatories as of April 9th, 2008:

37 signatures

Turner, Desmond
Gibson, Ian
Spink, Bob
Dismore, Andrew
Drew, David
Cohen, Harry
Harvey, Nick
Holmes, Paul
Jenkins, Brian
George, Andrew
Prentice, Gordon
Hoyle, Lindsay
Jones, Lynne
McCafferty, Chris
Moffatt, Laura
Corbyn, Jeremy
Cryer, Ann
Hancock, Mike
Wareing, Robert N
Clark, Katy
Sharma, Virendra Kumar
Lepper, David
Owen, Albert
Caton, Martin
Durkan, Mark
Weir, Mike
MacNeil, Angus
Pope, Greg
Robertson, Angus
Llwyd, Elfyn
McDonnell, Alasdair
Meale, Alan
Davey, Edward
Vis, Rudi
Willis, Phil
Hosie, Stewart
Heyes, David

Posted by tim at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2008

Chennai supports the Bhopal Padyatris

19 March, 2008

Around 100 people gathered at the Gandhi Statue on Marina beach to hold a candle light vigil in support of the second padyatra of the Bhopal gas survivors.

Around 6’o clock we started readying the place for the vigil. We had two banners in Tamil and English which had the story of Bhopal and Padyatra in brief. These banners were spread out for people to read. The big banner asking Prime Minister to Walk his Talk was spread too for people to sign.

We started the vigil with Mangai, Poet and theatre artist introducing the padyatra and the demands of the Bhopalis to the people gathered there.

The first event of the day was a small skit enacted for a poem written by Poet Inquilab called “Atharku Munbu, Atharku Pinbu, which translates into English as “Before that and after that”, “that” referring to the Bhopal Gas Disaster. It was written one week after the Bhopal Gas Disaster way back in 1984. Children from Bairava community (fortune tellers) enacted the Poem for the people in a very beautiful way.

Vedant Bharadwaj , a singer from Chennai, sang beautiful songs in Tamil, English and other languages. More than 30 students from Good Earth School, Chennai participated in the vigil and also sang songs together. Viraj and Daanish dedicated the song “ASHAYEN” to the Bhopalis and said that they really hope that Bhopalis would win the struggle.

Lot of Tamil and English poems were read out by poets and also people who had come for the vigil. The Vigil was extremely participatory and saw a lot of first time Bhopal supporters, especially children and young people.

While this was happening on one side, pamphleteering and talking to people about the padyatra also went on very well. At any given time we had at least a hundred people gathered around us watching us, reading the banners and enquiring about the padyatra and the struggle. Lot of people came forward to sign the banner saying that they wanted to do their bit for the struggle.

On the whole the evening was fun filled and successful. It was one of the best events we have had in support of Bhopal and we definitely reached the message of Bhopal Padyatris to a lot of people.

Jeny Dolly

Posted by tim at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

March 03, 2008

Yes, I want to be a Student for Bhopal!

IIT Delhi: 2nd March 2008

report by Shalini

Hundreds of engineering students were in IIT Delhi for the Institute’s well reputed technical festival yesterday. Bhopal supporters were up and active. Three emails, five calls and few sms' later we were in IIT Delhi yet again with full zest to say loud and clear- We won’t let Bhopal die!

Aim was to meet students from several different engineering colleges and talk about the worst engineering disaster of the country. After all, companies like Union Carbide and Dow Chemical manipulate the well meaning intentions and talent of us - young Professionals - to further their profit graphs. So what if we don’t have millions to spend on the advertising campaigns like them, we have our conscience and we will voice it till that's the only voice they hear from all corners.

The corridor adjoining the main building of IIT became the exhibition gallery. Only this time, the pictures were put on the ground. It wasn’t eye catching in the traditional way of mounting exhibitions, but it was more than that.

Students will stop because faces of children cried out to them, Ronak’s hand reached out to them and they found themselves unable to move. Not until they have read what the faces have to say.

And students were not the only ones.

The impact was strong. Not satisfied with pictures and pamphlets, you would move on to know more…

Reflections and reactions!

Students took pictures of the exhibition to share them with their friends who could not come to IIT this time. They came back to us to know how to organize similar events on their campuses. It is difficult to know Bhopal and not tell others about it. The shock it gives is deep and the reaction it generates is hard. But most of all, it leads to an overbearing urge to say… to shout… to scream!!

And soon students were lining up in huge numbers.

To say what they had to…

Because the voice in their head wouldn’t let them turn a blind eye.

“Prime Minister- We won’t rest till Justice is done!”

“YES, I Want To Be a Student for Bhopal!”

If you were hoping, Mr. Prime Minister, that struggle would die, think again. Thew Young Bhopal Brigade is in the making. If the buzz that was generated on 2nd March in IIT Delhi was anything to go by, we are sure you will be hearing the music. Mr. Prime Minister, first Walk your Talk and then claim your stake for the next elections. Youth is watching you. Closely and keenly!

Please join this circle of trust, tell your friends about Bhopal, organize film screenings and exhibitions. Distribute pamphlets on Bhopal. Place website links on your orkut, facebook and messenger status. And if you need any help, feel free to contact Shalini (shalini@studentsforbhopal.org). But, most important, whatever you decide to do share with us. Let us join the voices of survivors!

Posted by tim at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)