Sayyed Irshad Ali, a budding artist from Udaipur has exhibited his work at the Public Art Project in Bhopal.

He has designed posters and has posted 1000 posters in various parts of the city and has distributed 100000 pamphlets to that effect.

The theme of Irshad’s work is the well known and much discussed Bhopal Gas Tragedy.  More than 25000 people died and lakhs were affected due to the gas leak.  Thousands of people are still affected as a result of birth defects as well as direct exposure to the site of the leak.

What Irshad seeks to portray through his art work is not just sympathy for those affected or for the families of those killed, but more importantly the attitude of the Indian government towards this issue.

He compares this event with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed millions of fishes and for which due compensation was given to the US government, but here, in India, though human lives have been affected, there is still no sign of hope for those affected or for the families of those killed.

Irshad says, “The two points I am raising in my artwork, in first point I am comparing these two man-made tragedies. In one case human beings died and in the other, fish died. There were different outcomes and different value systems in play. Bhopal’s human victims are still waiting for justice, whereas the USA received compensation for dead fish and environmental damage.”

He also wants that the people should be made aware of the current patrons of Union Carbide, Dow Chemicals.  Dow has inherited the legacy of the tragedy, but is also not affecting any positive remedies for the benefit of those affected.

This artwork will raise questions such as; “how important are human lives in our country and do we really care enough?”