June 14, 2008

Party defensive on Dow Chemicals donation

Business Standard, June 14, 2008

The BJP appeared to be on the defensive after news reports that it had accepted donations from Dow Chemicals, the company which had taken over Union Carbide, implicated in the Bhopal gas tragedy.

Party spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the party was going into the details of the donation. "In most cases donations have been accepted on the face value and we have not verified who signed the cheque," he said.

After the incident came to light, Rudy said, the party would put in place a system to check the background of donors to avoid such embarrassment in the future.

Earlier, documents made public under the Right to Information (RTI) Act had revealed that the party took $ 2,500 from Dow Chemicals. The information was disclosed by the Election Commission. Incidentally, the BJP is one of the first parties to accept donations only by cheques.

Nearly 3,000 people had died when the deadly methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal in December 1984.

There have been nearly 15,000 deaths related to the incident since then.

Senior party leader M Venkaiah Naidu said the party was verifying if the donation was by Dow Chemicals and that even if it was the case, it would not affect the party's resolve to get justice for the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy.

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June 11, 2008

BJP in row over party donations

Panini Anand, BBC Hindi service, June 11, 2008

Dow Chemicals has acquired the controversial firm Union Carbide

India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accepted a $2,500 donation from Dow Chemical, government documents have revealed.

Dow Chemical is the American firm which bought the controversial company Union Carbide in 2001.

A gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal in 1984 killed nearly 3,000 people.

There have been at least 15,000 related deaths since. Survivors still suffer from chronic respiratory illnesses.

The leak of tonnes of methyl isocyanate gas from the plant in Bhopal owned by Union Carbide, now a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, is considered one of the world's worst environmental disasters.

The information was revealed by the Election Commission of India after a freedom of information request on the funding of political parties and donations received by them between 2005 and 2007.

Senior BJP leaders said they would check party records before commenting.

Dow Chemical said the donation had been a one-off and broke no rules.

"It is a common practice in several democratic countries to give donations to political parties which is legal," a company spokesman said.

"Dow Chemical International Private Ltd made one such legal donation to the BJP in India. We have made no other political contribution."

'No justification'

Senior BJP leaders have often accused the Congress party of not taking action against those responsible for the gas leak.

Campaigners want legal action pursued against Union Carbide and Dow Chemicals and are angry that the BJP accepted the donation.

"Dow Chemicals, one of the biggest chemical companies globally, acquired a controversial firm like Union Carbide. Accepting a donation from them cannot be justified," Gopal Krishna of the Delhi-based NGO Toxics Watch said.

"It is a serious matter. If a political party behaves in this fashion, then they should be exposed," he said.

Political parties in India accept donations from individuals as well as from companies and industries.

But it is rare for a mainstream party to accept money from a firm which is mired in controversy.

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May 22, 2008

Ministers to fix Dow’s gas burden

JAYANTA ROY CHOWDHURY, Calcutta Telegraph, May 22, 2008

New Delhi, May 22: A group of ministers will decide if US-based Dow Chemical should be made to pay for the clean-up of Bhopal’s air and groundwater pollution, a fallout of the 1984 gas tragedy.

The Centre has decided to refer the matter to the group of ministers after the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers and the commerce ministry failed to agree on the subject.

The chemicals ministry has written to the Union cabinet that it is against letting Dow walk away without paying for the clean-up of the toxic waste left behind by the gas leak from Union Carbide’s Bhopal plant in December 1984.

Dow bought Union Carbide in 2001, 17 years after the gas killed an estimated 8,000 people and maimed tens of thousands, while the contaminants it left behind continue to endanger the health of 20,000 people through their drinking water and food.

However, the commerce ministry feels that allowing Dow to invest in India without burdening it with liability from a past with which it was not actually associated would send the right signal to US investors.

The chemicals ministry’s stand is that the courts should fix corporate responsibility, and that since Dow had bought Union Carbide, the responsibility of the clean-up could be pinned on it under Indian corporate law.

It feels that a failure to fix responsibility would be a poor precedent for future global corporate take-overs that have a bearing on India.

An alternative proposal by industrialist Ratan Tata is not acceptable to the chemicals ministry, which represents the government in all legal cases relating to the gas tragedy.

Tata, co-chair of the Indo-US CEO Forum that has Dow president Andrew N. Liveris as a member, has proposed that Indian and US companies jointly set up a corpus to clean up the site. But the ministry says this goes against the principle of making the successor pay.

In response to a public interest litigation, Jabalpur High Court has already ordered Dow to deposit Rs 100 crore for the clean-up, and chemicals ministry officials say they support this. About 70 tonnes of poisonous residues have contaminated the soil and groundwater in the factory’s neighbourhood, and penetrated vegetation and animal tissues.

There have also been demands for compensation to the 20,000 endangered people.

Dow’s official stance is that the plant was owned by Union Carbide India — a joint venture between the US-based Union Carbide Corporation, the Indian government and private investors. Union Carbide sold its shares in Union Carbide India in 1994, seven years before Dow acquired it.

The plant is now controlled by the Madhya Pradesh government, and Union Carbide India has now been renamed Eveready Industries.

NGOs and associations representing the gas victims have been demanding that Dow pay for the environmental and health damage caused by reckless dumping of hazardous chemical wastes on the factory premises.

The NGOs accuse the Centre of being wishy-washy. Documents they have procured under the Right to Information Act appear to suggest that Union cabinet members would prefer a compromise that helps Dow invest in India.

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