Bhopal gas: A lethal trade secret

The Times of India,  December 1984

Twenty-five years after the Bhopal gas leak,  I still wonder if we are any wiser on an antidote to Methyl isocyanate.  Wikipedia doesn’t have an entry for MIC antidote.  Presumably,  it still remains a  trade secret of Union Carbide  (now owned by Dow Chemical) – a secret that killed thousands in Bhopal and left thousands of others physically impaired.

Doctors in Bhopal on that December night in 1984,  clueless and left to their own devices, administered drugs for cyanide poisoning, as victims who inhaled the gas poured in at Hamidia Hospital  only to die  by the hundreds. I recall,  reporting in The Times of India, ‘ all nine cremation grounds in town were kept busy round the clock’.  And all that Union Carbide could be persuaded to say,  in the face of such calamitous gas leak,  was that methyl isocyanate ‘had nothing to do with cyanide and  that the two substances had entirely different effects on tissues and human health’.  They weren’t being very helpful, were they ?

Postmortem indicated that the deaths were due to respiratory failure following pulmonary oedema (fluid in the lungs).  It was found that the lungs of gas victims contained 250 cc of fluid and weighed 900  grams against the normal lungs weight of 400 to 500 grams.

Sourced from my article : The night Bhopal Turned a Gas Chamber.

Child labour in posh flats

Snag is many of us don’t even see any wrong-doing in employing  child labour for household work.  And many who have a chokra or mundu in residence believe they are  doing the  unfortunate children and their parents  a huge favour by  giving them a livelihood.  Children in household jobs are,  in most cases,  brought from the employer’s native village with the consent of  their parents.

In  a few cases a  faithful boy from the village comes with a bride in the family, as part of  the ‘dowry’ she brings. Our movies glorify  child labour by portraying the leading man in a family drama as someone who came into the family as chokra . Viewed in the light of the middle-class indifference to the issue and  the domestic compulsions of parents who send their children out to  work in cities,  The Hindu report makes refreashing reading.  According to the report,  it was the Mangalore media that first took it  up with the authorities.  The newspaper not only played the story on  Page One, it also identified the  wrong-doers -  a  local businessman and a doctor couple.  Whether or not they get punished under the  law such negative publicity may well be deterrent  to others in their social circle.

BBC debates gender equality

There was gender equality in its panel -  three women and as many men.  The BBC World Debate in New Delhi  focused on the question whether gender equality is achievable in work place ? Consensus  was,  ‘ yes, but not anytime soon’.

Panelists : Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi ;  ICICI Bank chief  Chanda Kochhar ;  Obama’s envoy for global women’s issues  Melanne Verveer ;  and  Suhel Seth,  said to be New Delhi’s much sought after party guest,  and,  presumably,  most-invited  TV panelist ;   Renault and Nissan CEO  Carlos Ghosn ; and show host BBC’s  Nik Gowing,  who  gave equal opportunity for them to address the issue. What they said:

Ms. Nooyi:  What do we mean by gender equality ? Is it men-women employment on  50-50 basis,  or  equal recognition of their work?  Does it refer to peer respect for women in work place? Gender equality  is hard to define. She reckoned that  in many societies women are not given a choice  to work.

Ms Kochhar:  Employers need to address issues such as  maternity benefits. This assumes importance in ICICI bank,  where  80 percent of  women employees are below 30. As a woman, and working mother,  she says she considers  it  a privilege to be able to handle both roles. It is a 24 hr. job.

Mr.Ghosn :  Gender equality entailed men sharing responsiblities on the home front as well. Why not encourage male employees to take care of baby  by granting paternity leave and other benefits ?  Yes,  gender parity is achievable in the long term.

Mr Seth:  In the long-term we are all dead. To get anywhere on gender equality we need to look at the status of women beyond their work place. Viewed in this light the issue relates to gender respect.  There can be no gender equality without a mindset change in society.

Mr Vijay Malya:  Kingfisher commemorated the International  Women’s Day with flights that had  all-women crew.  He saw it as a matter of visibility of women in male-dominent fields. He refers to car racing says it would serve as role model for others, if we can identify  a woman Formula 1 driver.

Those of us who watched the debate may not have become any wiser on the status of  gender parity.  But then it is an  issue  that perhaps  needs to be hammered in,  on an ongoing basis in seminars, workshops and  TV talk shows.

At the end of it my thoughts were : 1) Can we  think of a women who can match up  to  Suhel Seth in TV appearances  as a  stock panelist ?   Kiren Bedi, maybe  ?

2) And why can’t  BBC think of holding a gender issue debate in Saudi Arabia ?

Of media access to MUDA meet

The headline is misleading.  Proceedings of a board  meeting of Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA)  was relayed live to the media on closed-circuit TV,  presumably,  for the first time  in MUDA’s history.   How could anyone object to such initiative for transparency ?

But some MUDA members,  notably state legislators,  were not enthusiastic about it . In fact, they opposed any  access to media,  as if  what transpires among MUDA board members is state secret .  Reasons they gave point to their mindset.

Some legislator members are quoted as saying,  1) MUDA board meets are comparable to in-camera  meetings of the Karnataka cabinet.

2) Media presence would  ‘disturb deliberations and decision-making ‘  process at MUDA meeting .

3) There  is no provision in law that ‘mandates’  MUDA to hold an open meeting, in media presence’.

What  they neglect  to mention is there is nothing in the law that bans media  access to MUDA meetings.  If the press had been kept out for so long,  it was for reasons best known to its board members.  Despite objections, or rather because of the member’s reservations,  MUDA chairman P  Manivannan worked out an arrangement,  by which local media can have access to proceedings of meetings without causing  ‘disturbance’  by their physical presence at the  MUDA boardroom. The boardroom proceedings were relayed through closed-circuit TV to reporters assembled elsewhere  at MUDA office.  However audio quality of telecast left much to be desired.

A local newspaper gave its own spin to this lapse,  saying  “it was not known if the audio was deliberately muffled or was due to a technical problem” .  Unpredictable are the ways of our  media.

Women in combat forces

We invest nearly Rs.11 crores  on training a fighter pilot.  And the investment is recovered over nearly 14 years,  according Vice-Chief-of-Air Staff Air Marahal P K Barbora.  Viewed in this perspective,  he reckons,  it is not feasible to keep women fighter pilots  in service once they get married.

As he would put it, constraints crop up the moment they get into the family way.  Besides, there are concerns about what could happen,  if women officers were taken POWs  during combat operations.

Air Vice-chief’s plain speaking hasn’t apparently found favour with the government top brass.  A newspaper report citing highly placed  sources said,  ‘the stated policy of the government -  IAF’s doors are  open for induction of women in non-combat operations -  requires  no further elaboration’.

That the officially stated position doesn’t contradict what the air  marshal said is not the point.  It is that a high-ranking Air Force officer sought to explain to the media  something he need not have done.  In so doing ,  Air Marshal Barbora violated the most important of  policy guidelines, which reads,  ‘don’t ask,  don’t tell’.  There are certain issues media wouldn’t raise;  and the government doesn’t feel obliged to explain.

Nitpicking ?

Whatever happened to the old-fashioned  ‘visitors’ ?  ‘Footfalls’ may be ‘cool’ ,  but its usage here  sounds  ‘ smart Alec-y’ .  Besides  ‘visitors’ is a simpler,  shorter word,  and,  presumably,  more easily  understood by traditional readers of The Hindu.

A tale of two headlines

How does this remain a secret if they publicise it in bold print on Page One ? And a secret so exposed in the media sets a chain reaction,  undermining the very purpose for which the hush-hush meeting was set up in the first place.  Reading both headlines together tells us another story -  that those invoved in the secret meet are unlikely to meet again anytime soon.

But these are not the concerns of the reporter who broke the story,  or the newspaper that chose to publish it as  ‘exclusive’. The Hindu report credited to Praveen Swami eminently fits a definition of news.   Which is,  ‘news’  is something someone wants suppressed.

Media expose of the secret meet between the home minister and the Hurriyat leaders has had unintended political consequence. But then it  was apparently not so ‘unintended’  for the ‘highly placed’  government sources that tipped off The Hindu.  If the intention of  these sources was to undermine the peace initiative,  they can be said to have succeeded,  with unintended  help from The Hindu.

Those in the business of news gathering would tell you that newspaper  ‘exclusives’ , or scoop as they call it,  are often delivered to reporters  on a platter,  usually by  informed elements with a hidden agenda .  And an  investigative reporter is only as good as his contacts.  ‘Highly-placed’ sources are, at times, known to have used reporters  to  ‘plant’  information in the media, dressing it up as  ‘exclusive’.

A Nandi puja on Chamundi hill

I once overheard a foreign visitor asking a tourist guide,  ‘would anyone know how much this weighs’.   She was referring to the  Nandi on Chamundi Hill.  This kind of curiosity doesn’t bug you and I, and the rest of us in Mysore.  Tourists tend to be curious about matters to which we don’t give much thought.

But then a tourist guide is taken to be a know-all by visitors, and he/she can’t afford  to be ignorant,  not just about  Nandi’s tonnage but its other vital statistics  such as   age,  width,  height, the time it took to carve it, and  the number of artisans deployed.  A media  report says the 342-year-old Nandi carved in granite is 25 ft. wide  and 16 ft. in height.

Nandi was in the news for a mahabisheka performed  on the mega idol.  A platoon of priest chanted mantra as they poured  over the head of the bull 30 different items,  including  milk, honey,  curds,  ghee, and tender coconut water.

A Hajj roznamcha

Amir Ahmad Alawi of Lucknow went on Hajj pilgrimage in 1929. It took him five months those days;  and he maintained a diary of the pilgrims progress on a daily basis.  Alawi wrote,  not for publication,  but  for himself,  and for his circle of friends and relations.  Had they invented the Internet eight decades earlier Alawi would have blogged his Hajj roznamcha.

Alawi’s account  has now been published -  Journey to the Holy Land: A Pilgrim’s Diary – at a time that coincides with  the Hajj season this year.  Last year over 17 lakh Muslims from the world over visited the holy sites of Mecca and Madina. Hajji Alawi’s diary has been English translated and edited by Mushirul Hasan, historian, and Rakhshanda Jalil of jamia Millia Islamia.

Front-page news

This is Page One,  in its entirety ,  of  Mysore’s  leading  evening daily.

Question:  Are readers getting their money’s worth ?