India should boycott London Olympics: Vaiko

Chennai: MDMK leader Vaiko demanded on Monday that India boycott the London Olympics if the organisers did not cancel the sponsorship contract with Dow Chemicals, which has links to Union Carbide - the company responsible for the Bhopal gas disaster in 1984.

"To save the honour of the Indian democracy and to respect the sad sentiments of the affected people of Bhopal (gas tragedy), the government should send a strongly-worded message to the International Olympic Committee to cancel the sponsorship given to Dow Chemicals with an ultimatum that India would boycott London Olympics," he said.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vaiko pointed that the quadrennial event had been boycotted before and cited the example of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, when Western nations stayed away from the mega sports event.

In a letter to the PM, Vaiko said the govt should send a strongly-worded message to the IOC to cancel the sponsorship given to Dow Chemicals.

"Environmentalists and human right activists all over the world are closely watching the attitude of the Indian government in this context... If the organisers of the London Olympics do not cancel the Dow Chemicals contract, India should boycott the London Olympics," he insisted.

Dow Chemicals, of which Union Carbide is a 100 per cent subsidiary, was wholly responsible for the 1984 Bhopal Gas leak tragedy, in which thousands lost their lives, Vaiko said.

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