Indian State’s Chief Enters Dow Row

The dispute over Dow Chemical’s sponsorship of London 2012 is continuing, with a senior Indian politician calling for a boycott of the Games unless the sponsorship is cancelled.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, has reportedly written to the country’s federal sports minister, Ajay Maken, calling for action. The complaints that have dogged Dow’s sponsorship are the result of a 1984 gas leak at a Union Carbide Corporation plant, which led to the deaths of more than 3000 people. Union Carbide was taken over by Dow in 2001.

The IANS news agency reported that Chouhan’s letter calls on the government to protest Dow’s sponsorship and to consider a boycott if the sponsorship is allowed to continue, noting that the liabilities related to the disaster had not been fully settled and were the subject of litigation.

Sebastian Coe, the chairman of London 2012, expressed his own support of Dow’s sponsorship earlier this month, telling a committee: ‘I am the grandson of an Indian so I am not completely unaware of this as an issue, but I am satisfied that at no time did Dow operate, own or were involved with the plant either at the time of the disaster or crucially at the time of the full and final settlement.

‘The Indian Supreme Court has upheld on two previous occasions the settlement that was reached by the previous owners of that plant.’