Posted on Monday, June 14, 2010 - 03:29 pm:

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In India, xenophobia has become the stick with which to beat a beleaguered Congress. And the Congress is certainly gasping for answers which explain its generosity towards American interests. In the US, an embattled Obama has craftily used xenophobia to �kick ass�, his euphemism for targeting perfidious Albion. In his initial interventions, the President, for example, insisted on referring to BP by its earlier name, British Petroleum. This was no unintended mistake. It was about as loaded as referring to, say ITC, as Imperial Tobacco Company.


It was a theme that has been readily echoed by others. The feisty Sarah Palin, whose husband was employed by BP for 18 years, railed against �foreign companies� in the energy sector. Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner went a step further. �Whenever you hear someone with a British accent talking about this on behalf of British Petroleum�, he said, �(he is) not telling you the truth.�


Substitute British for American and you may discover astonishing similarities with the rhetoric of angry Indian populists.

Cut to the situation prevailing in the US in 1984, in the aftermath of the Bhopal disaster, and it is possible to gauge the pressure Washington must have brought to bear on New Delhi to be �reasonable�. In moments of intense crisis, companies, even MNCs, tend to fall back on a national government to bail them out of sticky situations. BP may not succeed because the victim is the mighty US of A and because there is too much �green� consciousness in the world to permit covert deals.


Unfortunately, this was not the case in 1984 when human beings and not birds died. In today�s world, no company could have got away paying chicken-feed for a crime of this magnitude. As victims of this latest industrial disaster, the US knows it

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Posted on Monday, June 14, 2010 - 02:56 pm:

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Pavala:

ilaanti LK gaallani gothulu theesi kappeyyaali....congi bhoosthaapitham avvaali..thu

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Posted on Monday, June 14, 2010 - 02:46 pm:

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How fortunate for the nation that Ramesh was not sleeping in a slum on that night in December 1984 when methyl isocyanate seeped out of the Union Carbide plant, killing nearly 20,000 and maiming over a 100,000 more, before its eerie poison had exhausted itself. We must be thankful to God that Ramesh was not a fetus killed in unknown wombs; or that he had not reached the age of 26 with twisted limbs and dark, angry eyes while a mother covered her son with a protective shawl in a helpless gesture of love. How fortunate that Ramesh never met Raghu Rai, the great and compassionate photographer who has done more for the helpless than the government of India, with its mighty instruments of state, and the government of United States, with its great commitment to human rights, have done.

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Posted on Monday, June 14, 2010 - 02:44 pm:

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Ramesh said, triumphantly, "I held the toxic waste in my hand. I am still alive and not coughing. It's 25 years after the gas tragedy. Let us move ahead."

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The heroism of volunteers who have fought a powerful, sneering bipartisan system on behalf of victims, for no reward other than the calm of a conscience, is beyond words. Am I dreaming, or will there come a moment when every Indian conscience is touched by Bhopal?

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