US warns India not to pursue Dow in Bhopal case

New Delhi: With India pursuing efforts to make Dow Chemicals pay higher compensation in the Bhopal gas disaster, a senior US official reportedly asked the government not to persist with it so as to avoid any "chilling" in the investment relationship between the two countries.

"We are hearing a lot of noise about the Dow Chemical issues. I am not familiar with all the details but I think we want to avoid development which put a chilling effect on our investment relationship", US Deputy National Security Advisor Froman Michael wrote to Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia in a recent e-mail, Times Now reported on Wednesday.

His remarks came in response to Ahluwalia's e-mail in which he sought US help in ensuring that India gets accommodation by continuing to get concessional aid from the World Bank's soft-lending arm IDA.

When asked about this e-mail exchange, Ahluwalia said he was not involved in any discussions with the US on issues that are sub-judice--a reference to the Bhopal case.

"I don't interpret from Froman's -e-mail that there is any link between two (Dow Chemicals and World Bank)."

Asked about the US "pressure" to go slow on Dow Chemicals, Ahluwalia told the channel, "I don't regard these e-mails as pressure at all."

Froman reportedly assured Ahluwalia that US would take care of India's request.

"We are aware of this issue and we will look into it. While I have got you, we are hearing a lot of noise about the Dow Chemical issues. I trust that you are monitoring it (Dow Chemical issue) carefully," Froman replied to Ahluwalia according to the TV Channel report.

Meanwhile, official sources said the government's stand is clear as contained in Home Minister P Chidambaram's statement in Parliament last week during a debate on the Bhopal disaster.

On the liability of Dow, Chidambaram had said in Rajya Sabha that there are three players--Union Carbide, Dow and Eveready.

Once the Madhya Pradesh High Court fixes liability, "we will certainly hold that company or those companies liable for remediation and whatever we had done by way of remediation before the liabilities are crystallised we will ask for restitution. We are not allowing anyone to go scot-free".