Indian Olympic body 'rules out' London 2012 boycott

[fd24]

The Indian Olympic Association has said there is "no question" of a boycott of the 2012 London Games amid a row over one of the sponsors.

The chief minister of Madhya Pradesh had called for Indian athletes to stay away unless the organisers ended sponsorship from the Dow Chemical company.

Dow has links to the firm behind the deadly Bhopal gas disaster in 1984.

The company says the issue of compensation for victims is settled.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is due to meet next week, but acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra told Reuters news agency a boycott would not be on the agenda.

The Hindu newspaper quoted Mr Malhotra as saying: "There is no question of India boycotting the London Olympics. We are not boycotting the Olympic Games and that is very clear on the IOA's part."

However, the paper also reported Mr Malhotra as saying the sponsorship issue would be raised with the London organisers.

"We want to express in black and white that there has been opposition in the country to the London Games being associated with Dow Chemical," he said.

Dow is to create a fabric wrap for the Olympic stadium.

Is this a case of India bottling it and allowing the west to dictate to them - unfortunate.

BBC News - Indian Olympic body 'rules out' London 2012 boycott

 

[IndoCarib]

Actually India should have stuck with boycott. UK would have given in and canceled the Dow deal

 

[JanjaWeed]

This was expected in any case. If it's athletes individual choice to boycott the games, then it's commendable. However as a govt, India has no leg to stand on. It was the govt at both state & centre let Union Carbide run away with murder.

 

[IndMaster]

The world won't care an India boycott of Olympic. India can go away and Olympic won't miss a beat. Indians are not good in Olympic anyway. The boycott is just an excuse to avoid the embarrassment of losing.

 

[Devil Soul]

India rules out boycott of London Olympics (AFP)

29 November 2011 NEW DELHI — India will resist pressure to boycott the London Olympics over sponsorship by a US company linked to the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, in which thousands of people died, a top official said on Tuesday.
Indian Olympic Association president Vijay Kumar Malhotra told AFP it would not pull out of the Games over the deal with Dow Chemical, which bought Union Carbide, the firm blamed for the lethal gas leak from a pesticide factory.

‘The IOA will not boycott the Olympics. Such a thing has not been discussed,’ Malhotra said.

However he added that the IOA would ‘inform the International Olympic Committee of opposition’ to Dow Chemical’s sponsorship of London 2012.

Shivraj Chauhan, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh state where Bhopal is located, had urged India to boycott the Games as Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide, the owner of the factory, in 2001.

Dow Chemical, which is sponsoring a fabric shroud to be installed on the Olympic Stadium, says all liabilities over the disaster have been resolved.

The accident killed thousands instantly and tens of thousands more from its lingering effects over the following years, according to official Indian figures.

Malhotra said the company should spend money on survivors instead of sponsoring the Games.

Malhotra holds temporary charge of the IOA because his predecessor Suresh Kalmadi is in jail over corruption charges stemming from last year’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

London Olympic chief Sebastian Coe has defended the Dow Chemical sponsorship deal but Labour politician Ken Livingstone, who was mayor of London when the city won the right to host the Games, has urged a rethink.