Remembering Bhopal

The worst industrial tragedy and no justice for 25 years, what more can one say. Some lives are cheap. Shouldn’t the international community take this up?. Why no criminal charges filed at international criminal court. The other day I was watching BBC and they did some testing of drinking water, it is still highly toxic. There is a criminal negligence here. There has been tons of material written about this but still no action.

The joke here is Union Carbide is back as Dow chemical in India with some unscrupulous leaders extending the red carpet (et al Budhadeb Bhattacharya the incompetent CM of Bengal). Few weeks back I was in Pallakad (in Kerala), went to a small restaurant nearby for breakfast (the idlis of Pallakad is something to die for!!) . The owner was reading The Hindu newspaper (it’s a small time newspaper with big intention, doesn’t sell much but made inroads through Tam Bram threaded types who had fiefdom in bureaucracy after independence -thus acquiring gravitas. Now it survives on cut and paste job), this blogger buys only the largest selling newspaper -though not regular- wherever I go it tends to give the pulse of people, dear Ram will have to earn his 3Rs. Anyway newspapers are not to be taken seriously (except maybe the cartoons the main reason why I buy, some of these guys are brilliant. RK Laxman still is my favorite. Few months back I went for exhibition of Mario Miranda, he is amazing. I also loved the names he gave his characters).

So I was saying… the newspaper had an apology by dear Ram. It was about retraction on using Dow chemicals to sponsor some children event, indignant readers protested. Dear Ram writes “the reaction of readers was not anticipated”. Dear Ram thought he can earn some easy money there. Kya mamu public ko ch**thiya samaj liya kya?. What dear Ram with all his pretentious sophistication is trying to say is me tho nanna sa chota sa pyala sa muje kya malum. Scoundrels like him will not be into any corruption since they already have property worth millions just by squatting on prime property. The clever fellow works on the fringes of unethical, trying to extend a wee bit daily (it is a cottage industry in market media). He also comes in TV channels once in a while espousing higher ideals (which incidentally if you analyze will be helping him and his clan. This blogger thinks there should be stricter laws on privacy). This blogger strongly request readers not to buy such newspapers that promote killers of Bhopal. The presence of Dow Chemicals itself is a reflection on corrupt system that facilitated these.

PS. I came to know the other day that Kalpana Sharma has left dear Ram and has syndicated her columns. Cheers to that. When will PSainath or Praveen Swami do these will be interesting, their market rate is quite high. It is amazing that these talented people are ready to work under some small time unethical scoundrel running dwindling business.

In the meantime this blogger wouldn’t mind sponsoring a tela for dear Ram to sell peanuts at marina. Don’t know whether he can even do that?. There is no harm in trying though!!.