Dharna Blog

Day 17: 11 August, 2010

Braving the humidity and heat all of us once again marched to Jantar Mantar in the morning from our night home, the shelter house at St’ Columbus School.  Once there, Mamu, Vikas and others put up the temporary tent and we all sat down together for our morning tea.  Sathyu soon left for Delhi Public School where a group of students had assembled to build their understanding of Bhopal and what it means today.

Meanwhile, Rachna, Shalini and Namdeo left for the Parliament for the usual round of MP endorsements on the Joint Petition addressed to the Prime Minister. ‘Today being the third day of our effort to get political support we had also become pretty comfortable with the staff in the Parliament. Many of them would recognize and smile encouragingly. A few others, like the Security Guard near the Rajya Sabha Gallery would give a thumbs up each time we would pass him,’ says Shalini. Both Rachna and Shalini would stand near the Rajya Sabha gate waiting for the Members of Parliament and as soon as they would see someone in white kurta and trousers, unofficial dress for the Parliamentarians, they would rush to them with the petition and supporting documents. The 7th June verdict has rekindled their interest into the facts of the disaster. With the debates scheduled for today in both the Houses of the Parliament suddenly facts have become sacred. That’s possibly why not a single Parliamentarian dismissed our Bhopal activists who seemed quite out of place in their very ordinary clothes and chappals.

Dharna Blog

Day 16 - Aug 10, 2010 Part 2 (political update by Kaveri)

Shalini and Rachna went to the parliament today morning. The night before, Sandeep Dixit had informed us that there was to be a discussion on the gas disaster in Lok Sabha, and we'd send him some relevant documents. However, we didn't know when the session would begin. MP Sayyed Pasha helped us enter the parliament, however we would need a second recommendation to enter the Lok Sabha gallery. The previous day, it was Mr. Abni Roy who took us inside the parliament.

Dharna Blog

Day 15, Aug 9 --by Garima

Today was an exceptionally cheerful day at the dharna sthal as about 70 new faces from Bhopal had replaced the previous batch. Sakina and Sana did yet another round of AIIMS hospital for Sana's tumor operation and have finally been given a date for the operation. They will now be here in the first week of November for the surgery and medication.

Students from Delhi University joined us today for a interaction with Satyu and Rasheeda Apa. Inquisitive about the history of the accident and site remediation, they  put forward their queries and the interaction went on very well with Satyu unfolding the facts about the biggest industrial disaster. Some of them also helped us prepare posters for protest.

People's movement across the country were also demonstrating across India against the violation of people's rights and land grab by anti-people laws. Movements protested the displacement of people all around the country, police and mafia attacks, forced land acquisition in the tribal belts of Chattisgarh, Kalinga Nagar and Sompeta, the destruction of forests, ruining of fertile agricultural lands, adivasi lives and fisheries - all done in the name of development and GDP growth.