London, Nov 26 (ANI): India is threatening to pull out of the London Olympics in a protest against organizing committee's sponsorship deal with Dow Chemical company, which is responsible for 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
The Dow chemical company signed a deal with the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, under which it would sponsor the seven million pound fabric curtain that will encircle the Olympic Stadium.
The move outraged campaigners fighting for 25,000 people who died in India's devastating chemical leak in Bhopal.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has demanded that the Indian Government support an athletes' boycott if the Dow deal continues, the Independent reports.
"The funds intended for sponsoring the Olympics would be far better spent in alleviating the misery suffered by the people of Bhopal," Chauhan said.
According to the paper, the pressure from inside India is mounting.
Aslam Sher Khan, an Olympic gold medal winner who became a politician, said the ongoing suffering in Bhopal made Dow's involvement in London 'very concerning'.
"The anniversary is coming up and the people of Bhopal are still shaken by what happened and the ongoing contamination. I am writing to Sonia Gandhi to put pressure on the British Government to rethink its association with this company," Khan said.
The former Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, who worked closely with current head of the 2012 Games Lord Sebastian Coe, called on him to cancel the deal with Dow before the controversy irreparably damages the standing of the 2012 Games.
"There is a point at which you have to say you cannot take the reputational risk," the paper quoted Jowell, as saying. (ANI)
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