Whistleblower of Bhopal Gas Disaster, Rajkumar Keshwani is No More

Noted journalist Rajkumar Keshwani, who raised the alarm about the Bhopal Gas Disaster much before it happened, passed away due to heart failure on Friday. He was undergoing treatment in a hospital in Mumbai. He was 70.

Keshwani started doing research about the safety lapses at the Union Carbide Bhopal India plant in 1981 when his friend who used to work at the plant spoke about the possible dangers of leakage. It took him nine months to write his first piece on 26 September 1982 with a headline “Bachaiye huzoor is shahar ko bachaiye” (“Save Please, Save This City”) in a weekly paper named Rapat.

He wrote a series of articles to make people realise and aware that they are on the edge of a volcano. In spite of his repetitive warning no one paid attention.

He became the youngest journalist ever to receive the prestigious Indian BD Goenka Award for excellence in Journalism in 1985.

He wrote many books on films. ‘Daastan-e-mughal-e-Azam’ based on the Bollywood movie ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ is one of the most popular books.