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Bhopal gas survivors to ‘expose’ Kamal Nath

Staff Correspondent

Accuse the Union Minister of helping Union Carbide

Accused of favouring Dow Chemicals and Union Carbide
“He has joined hands with the killer of Bhopal”

BHOPAL: Two organisations of Bhopal gas disaster survivors on Tuesday announced their decision to launch a public awareness campaign to “expose” Union Commerce and Industries Minister Kamal Nath’s role “in helping Dow Chemicals and Union Carbide escape their liabilities in Bhopal”.

Jointly addressing a press conference here, Rashida Bee of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh and Syed M. Irfan of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha said Mr. Nath had approved the sale of Union Carbide’s Unipol technology to Reliance Industries in 2006 knowing fully well that he was approving the sale of intellectual property of an absconding criminal.

They pointed out that in March 1992 the Bhopal district court had directed the Government to confiscate all property belonging to Union Carbide in India.

The leaders representing the gas victims’ cause, who also spoke on behalf of Satinath Sarangi and Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information and Action, said they would visit the Union Minister’s constituency, Chhindwara, and “expose him.” They said: “Mr. Nath is helping Union Carbide abscond from Indian courts. He has joined hands with the killer of Bhopal.”

They pointed out that on June 28, 2007, Mr. Nath had addressed a press conference in Washington, D.C., defending Dow Chemicals. “Dow, by integration, inherited Union Carbide. Dow themselves had no status in this, so Dow’s investment is not affected by that,” he is reported to have said.

Presenting a copy of a briefing note unearthed under the Right to Information Act from the PMO, the organisations accused Mr. Nath of presenting an opinion before the US media that was contrary to the opinion of the Indian Government. The leaders of the organisations who had a meeting with the Group of Ministers on Bhopal on April 17 said that in that meeting, in the presence of other Ministers and senior bureaucrats, the Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers, Ram Vilas Paswan, had said that the Unipol approval was given despite opposition by his Ministry.

The president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha told media persons that Mr. Nath had been trying to impede the course of law by shielding Dow Chemicals from inheriting any of Carbide’s liabilities.

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