Victims and survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy burnt an effigy of Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday here in protest against the recent decision of the Group of Ministers on Bhopal of not revising the figures of deaths and injuries caused by the disaster in the curative petition pending before the Supreme Court.
Victims, calling for his removal as the chairperson of the GoM, alleged that Mr. Chidambaram has a history of being “devoted to Union Carbide’s owner Dow Chemical”.
“The decision is unilaterally imposed by Mr. Chidambaram on the entire group. It goes against scientific data compiled by the government’s own apex research agency Indian Council of Medical Research,” said Rashida Bee, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh.
Presenting a copy of a letter written by Chidambaram to the PMO in 2006, Nawab Khan of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha said, “Mr. Chidambaram had written to the Prime Minister to let Dow Chemical walk away from its liabilities in Bhopal. His latest attempt to downplay the damage caused by the American company shows how devoted he continues to be to Dow Chemical Company”.
Survivor organizations also sent a copy of a letter addressed to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan by Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh religious leaders seeking withdrawal of criminal cases against gas victims related to the incident of violence on the 27th Anniversary of the disaster last year.
