Protests in Bhopal, Indore against Trump's visit

Organisations representing the 1984 gas tragedy survivors on Monday \staged a protest in Bhopal against the visit of US President Donald Trump claiming his dispensation was not extending help in the ongoing trial into what has been widely acknowledged as the world's worst industrial disaster.

Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action said protesters at Bhopal's Iqbal Maidan registered their anger at the US government not serving summons issued by a court in MP's capital city to Dow Chemicals, an American multi-national company.

Dow Chemicals is the current owner of Union Carbide, from whose factory in Bhopal poisonous gas leaked on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, killing 3,000 people and affecting 1.02 lakh.

"Since 2016, when Trump came to power, the Bhopal district court has twice summoned Dow Chemical, as the owner of Union Carbide, on charges of corporate manslaughter.

"However, the US Department of Justice has refused to serve these summons on Dow," Dhingra said.

The protesters held placards alleging the Trump administration was sheltering fugitives of the Bhopal tragedy.

In Indore, local organisations protested at regal Chauraha by forming a human chain, which also saw the participation of former state advocate general Anand Mohan Mathur.

Talking to reporters, Mathur claimed Trump had come to India as part of a "conspiracy" to obtain votes of American citizens of Gujarati origin in the US presidential elections due in November.

"Another purpose of Trump's visit to India is to sell the arms of US companies. But history has shown that America's capitalist mindset has been against India's interests," Mathur said.

Protesters in Indore held placards demanding that US investment in India's agriculture, animal husbandry and dairy sectors be banned.