Bhopal gas tragedy survivors on Monday, the day United States President Donald Trump arrived in India, alleged he was refusing to serve summons issued repeatedly by a Bhopal court on the firm responsible for the world's worst industrial disaster, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed to press the U.S. government to act.
Accusing the Trump government of sheltering the Dow Chemical Company, which in 2001 had acquired Union Carbide, from whose pesticide plant here a methyl isocyanate leak in 1984 killed thousands and caused deformities and congenital diseases in lakhs, the demonstrators beat Mr. Trump’s effigy with brooms at the Iqbal Maidan in Bhopal.
“Mr. Modi is not standing with the country’s people and failing to ask Mr. Trump tough questions. Instead, crores of rupees are being spent for his reception,” said Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action. “It is shocking that our Prime Minister in his eagerness to please Mr. Trump has not sought, let alone pressed for, the U.S. government’s cooperation in bringing the perpetrators to justice.”
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Stating that Mr. Trump’s visit aimed at only expanding his corporate agenda in India, she alleged, “He is here to further the interests of death-dealing American corporations like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Westinghouse.”
Since 2016 when Mr. Trump came to power, the court had twice summoned the Dow Chemical Company, as the owner of Union Carbide is absconding on the charge of corporate manslaughter, said Rashida Bi, president, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karamchari Sangh. “But the U.S. Department of Justice has refused to serve these summons on the firm,” she said.
Meanwhile, Nasreen Khan of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha accused the U.S. of sheltering the perpetrators of the disaster. “This is in violation of the the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) between India and U.S..”
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Untimely deaths
Pointing to hundreds of survivors dying untimely, Durgesh Ahirwar of Children against Dow Carbide said, “Hundreds of thousands are battling chronic illnesses and tens of thousands of children are being born with malformations and growth disorders. Through our brooms we are telling the world about the U.S. government’s role in perpetuating the injustice in Bhopal.”