Countdown to Justice

I used to be human once. So I’m told. I don’t remember it myself, but people who knew me when I was small say I walked on two feet just like a human being.

-Animal’s People, Indra Sinha (2007)

– Shortlisted for the Booker Award 2007

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The industrial disaster of Bhopal-1984 is known to us and requires no further enumeration. But sitting in 2008, what is discomfiting is the fact that even after 24 years of the disaster,

* the victims still remain uncompensated to last extents,
* groundwater composition of Bhopal has been rendered toxic and Dow has washed its hands off from cleaning it,
* the PMO is using muscle-power and bureaucratic tactics to diminish the fighting spirit of the victims, and
* the PMO has overlooked the suggestions of the Law Ministry as far as the entry of Dow Chemical is concerned, and is shielding the brazen lack of corporate accountability on the part of Dow.

At DU Beat, we are aware of the fact that the students of Delhi University, though concerned, have been associated with a few isolated efforts, to lend a voice to the people of Bhopal, whereas the victims have been shown open support by students in universities like Harvard and Paris. At an hour when the Bhopalis need supportive hands from every quarter of civil society, we believe that Delhi University students need to be encouraged to lend their voices to the movement, but this needs to be preceded by giving them knowledge of the ground realities at Bhopal.