Hockey Olympians against Dow sponsoring London 2012

CHENNAI: Hockey Olympians Vasudevan Baskaran and Charles Cornelius voiced their protest against Dow Chemical Company being a sponsor of the London Olympics and wanted to know why the Indian Olympic Association has not yet taken up the issue with IOC officials.

“Message to the Olympic Committee of England is to at least reconsider the option of not allowing them to be a sponsor,” Baskaran, former captain of the 1980 Moscow Olympics gold winning team, told reporters on Monday.

He alleged that Union Carbide Corporation, which was behind the Bhopal disaster and now taken over by Dow Chemical Company, has not paid compensation to the 1984 gas tragedy victims.

Baskaran said officials of Indian Olympic Association have been meeting with the IOC officials in London for the past four years and wondered “why they have not taken up the issue”.

It’s the IOA which has to raise the issue, since “Bhopal is in India and not in Germany,” he said. The Arjuna awardee noted that the IOA has got a member from Bhopal and appealed to MPs around Bhopal to “take up the issue in Parliament”.

Cornelius said they were not against the Olympics but all the Bhopal victims should be given compensation. Baskaran and Cornelius circulated a list of 22 well-known players including Dhanraj Pillay, Ashok Kumar Dhyanchand and A B Subbaiah who have reportedly endorsed their views.

Dow Chemical Company is to fund and construct the fabric wrap around the Olympic Stadium in east London. The company will also be an Olympic partner with the IOC and will support the Games for the next 10 years.