Demand IIT To Refuse Money From Killer Dow- Carbide

To:  IIT- All Seven Institutes

To
The Director
Indian Institute of Technology
All Seven Institutes: Delhi,Mumbai,Madras,Kanpur,Kharagpur,Guwahati,Roorkee

To
The Head of the Department, Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology
All Seven Institutes: Delhi,Mumbai,Madras,Kanpur,Kharagpur,Guwahati,Roorkee


26th April, 2007

Dear Sir/Madam:

We, the below-signed, are alumni from various Indian Institutes of Technology. Representatives of survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster informed us that Dow Chemical, the owner of Union Carbide, is attempting to forge links with IITs by offering to fund fellowships and/or projects in the Chemical Engineering department. We are writing to urge you to reject any such offer of a relationship with Dow Chemical or any of its subsidiaries for reasons mentioned below.

You are probably aware that Union Carbide is a key accused in a criminal case related to the Bhopal disaster where the company is charged with “culpable homicide not amounting to murder.” Because it failed to honour summons issued by the Bhopal court, it was declared an absconder in 1992.

Dow Chemical has also failed to obey the law and is currently being challenged in the criminal court for sheltering a fugitive. Till date, it has failed to make Union Carbide – its 100 percent subsidiary – appear in court to face trial.

Aside from the disaster, Union Carbide’s routine operations in the Bhopal factory have resulted in a massive environmental contamination problem that has not been addressed till date. Several thousand tons of toxic wastes, obsolete pesticides and contaminated material and machinery lie strewn in and around the factory site. Over the years, these wastes have leached their poisons into the groundwater. At least 10 governmental and non-governmental studies document and confirm the spread of toxic contamination. More than 20,000 people are forced to consume this contaminated water in the absence of any alternative. Tests carried out at IIT, Kanpur, by a New Delhi based fact finding mission on Bhopal showed the presence of toxic chemicals such as chloroform, chlorobenzenes, dichloromethane and heavy metals such as lead and mercury in the breast milk of mothers in these communities.

Union Carbide and Dow Chemical have refused to contribute towards clean-up of the contamination and groundwater.

As a result, Dow Chemical is the target of a concerted campaign by Bhopal survivors and their supporters, including ourselves. The aim of the campaign is to hold the corporation and the Governments of India and Madhya Pradesh accountable.

Dow Chemical’s track record in India and abroad is poor on various counts:

• Earlier this year, the company was fined $325,000 by the US Securities Exchange Commission for having paid $200,000 in bribes to Agriculture Ministry officials for expediting the registration of three of its pesticides. One of the registered pesticides, Dursban (chlorpyriphos), is freely sold in India whereas it has been withdrawn from use in domestic settings in the US owing to its demonstrated deleterious effects on the mental development of children. An enquiry by the Ministry and another by the Vigilance Commission is currently ongoing.
• In 2005, Indian Oil canceled a technology tie-up with Dow Global Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, because the company had attempted to sell a Union Carbide technology by passing it off as its own.
• Dow is exerting tremendous pressure on the Indian Government to get the Government to absolve it of all liabilities related to Bhopal. Letters unearthed by the Bhopal survivor groups indicates that Dow has written to the Indian ambassador in an attempt to dictate the Government’s course of action in a case against it for environmental clean-up in the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Dow’s poor track record, particularly with respect to Bhopal, has made it very unpopular. In May 2005, more than 1300 IIT alumni intervened and forced the organizers of the Global IIT 2005 Conference to cancel the key note address by William Stavropoulos, then CEO of Dow Chemical.

In March 2007, the University of California, Berkeley, returned a donation by Dow Chemical towards organizing the UC Berkeley Energy Symposium after students voted overwhelmingly against accepting funds from the tainted company.

Dow Chemical’s motive behind the relationship it is attempting to forge with IIT is not the furtherance of science and technology. Rather, it is an attempt to acquire legitimacy and credibility by associating itself with the IIT.

IIT’s impeccable reputation will certainly be tarnished by any association with Dow Chemical. By rejecting any offers made by the company, IIT will be sending a strong signal that it stands by principles of justice and ethics.


Thanking You,

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Demand IIT To Refuse Money From Killer Dow- Carbide Petition to IIT- All Seven Institutes was created by and written by Shalini Sharma (shalini@studentsforbhopal.org).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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