Rajkumar Keswani (1950–2021) was an Indian journalist, author, film historian and film distributor. He is widely acknowledged for predicting the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984, one of the world’s deadliest industrial accidents, in which more than 500,000 people died from the highly poisonous gas methyl isocyanate released from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal. Came in contact with (MIC). He wrote several articles from 1982 to 1984 highlighting safety issues at the pesticide plant before the catastrophic gas leak. However, his warnings were ignored. He died on 21 May 2021 due to complications following COVID-19.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Rajkumar Keswani was born on Monday, 26 December 1949 (age 71 years at death) in Sultania Zanana Hospital, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. Their zodiac sign is Capricorn. After attending Saifiya College, Bhopal, he pursued MA LLB from Barkatullah University, Bhopal.
Family
He belonged to a Sindhi family.
parents and siblings
His father Dada Lakshman Das Keswani was a journalist, writer, social reformer and freedom fighter. In 1964, he started a Sindhi language newspaper named Challenge. He died on 20 May 2020. His mother’s name is Krishnadevi Keswani. He died on 7 December 1996. His brother, Shashi Kumar Keswani, is an editor at The Informative Observer.
Rajkumar Keswani with his father, grandfather Laxman Das Keswani and brother Shashi Kumar Keswani
Rajkumar Keswani’s mother
wife and children
His wife’s name is Sunita Keswani. His son Raunak Keswani is also a journalist and chief sub-editor in Dainik Bhaskar.
From left to right, Sunita Keswani, Raunak Keswani, grandfather Laxman Das Keswani, Raunak Keswani’s wife, Rajkumar Keswani.
Rajkumar Keswani with his son Raunak Keswani
livelihood
journalism
He started his career as a sub-editor at Sports Times during his college years. Later, he was associated with various prestigious publications like Dinmaan, Newstime, Tribune, The Week, The Asian Age, The Independent, New York Times, The Illustrated Weekly of India, Sunday, The Sunday Observer, India Today, Outlook, Economic and Political . Weekly, Indian Express, Jansatta and Navbharat Times. He was the Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh Bureau Chief of NDTV from 1998 to 2003. In 2003, he started working as an editor for Dainik Bhaskar, Indore edition. He worked as Editor (Magazines) at Bhaskar Group from November 2004 to August 2009. He was fond of cinema and had extensive knowledge of Hindi films and music. He had a collection of old songs of singers like Master Madan, Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar’s father Dinanath Mangeshkar on gramophone discs and used to spend his evenings listening to them. He used to write a column every week on the journey of film songs in Bhaskar’s magazine Rasrang. His weekly column ‘Aaps Ki Baat’ dedicated to music and cinema published in Dainik Bhaskar was very popular.
A photograph of Shashi Kumar Keswani in an office full of books and gramophone
In 2008, he was one of 15 Asian journalists whose articles were published in book form in Korea in six different Asian languages. Throughout his life, he wrote extensively about Bhopal and anecdotes and stories of the city. Keswani had a long and successful career in journalism and received the Prem Bhatia Award for outstanding environmental reporting in 2010.
Warning before the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984
In 1981, Keswani first took interest in the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal when his friend, Mohammed Ashraf, who worked at the factory, informed him about the possibility of MIC gas leakage due to low maintenance and safety standards at the site. told. Unfortunately, in December of the same year, Mohammed lost his life in an accident at the plant caused by phosgene gas. Keswani was devastated by the loss of his friend and took up research on the nature of MIC gas. They found that the MIC contained several other highly toxic gases, including phosgene. His research revealed that MIC contained many other highly toxic gases, including phosgene. Additionally, they found that MICs, being heavier than air, would remain close to the ground rather than rising and dissipating into the atmosphere in the event of a leak. Two years before the gas leak, Rajkumar Keswani had written a series of local news articles discussing the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal and the dangers it posed to both workers and the community. To draw attention to the issue, Keswani enlisted the help of two former employees who were fired from the factory. It took him about nine months to research and write about the condition. On 26 September 1982, he published his first prophetic article “Bachhiye Huzoor Is Shehar Ko Bachaiye” (Sage, please save this city) in Rapat, a small news publication of Bhopal. He repeated the warning in two follow-up articles titled “Jwalamukhi ke muhane baitha Bhopal” (Bhopal sitting on the brink of a volcano) and “If you don’t understand, you will eventually disappear”. It was erased in newspapers like Jansatta on 1 and 8 October 1982. His report was also picked up and shared by national newspaper The Indian Express. In his articles, he detailed that safety standards at the plant were inadequate and could have led to a catastrophic leak. Keswani also wrote a letter to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Arjun Singh warning him about the dangers posed by the plant, but never received a reply. Keswani’s last article, titled “Bhopal: On the Brink of Disaster”, was published five months before the 1984 disaster. Unfortunately, his repeated warnings went unheeded by both the Union Carbide management and the Madhya Pradesh government, who failed to initiate any inquiry or investigation into the safety standards at the plant. People treated Keswani like a madman. They used to say to him,
Hey, does this ever happen? Has anything like this ever happened in this world?”
In an article, he also claimed that in 1975 an Indian bureaucrat named MN Buch had requested Union Carbide to move the plant from its current location due to the rapid development of residential neighborhoods around it. On 2 December 1984, exactly 2 years after Keswani published his first trio of warnings, his predictions were proven correct. A chemical accident occurred at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, exposing more than 500,000 people in small towns around the plant to the highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate (MIC). The tragedy is considered one of the world’s deadliest industrial accidents. More than half a million people were injured, of whom more than 3,000 died from diseases including lung cancer, kidney failure and liver disease.
Indian photojournalist Raghu Rai’s famous photograph ‘Burial of an Unknown Child’, which became a symbol of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy
When Keswani was awarded the BD Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism in 1985, he wept over the fact that his warnings had gone unheeded, saying that he was disappointed to receive the award for ‘such a spectacular journalistic failure’. Could be the first one. Later, he associated himself with survivor organizations in Bhopal.
Rajkumar Keswani with Dr. Rosalie Bartel, director of the International Medical Commission on the Union Carbide MIC gas leak disaster in Bhopal in 1984, which investigated the catastrophic chemical fallout
Other
Before coming into journalism, he was associated with the film industry. He tried his hand in film distribution. Keswani worked as a distributor for CI Circuits. He was involved in the distribution of films like Milan Ki Bela (re-released) in collaboration with OP Goyal and Uttam Nahar. Additionally, he played a role in the colorization of the epic historical drama Mughal-e-Azam (1960). Additionally, he also wrote a book titled Dastan-e-Mughal-e-Azam on the film Mughal-e-Azam (1960).
Dastan-e-Mughal-e-Azam by Rajkumar Keswani
In 2020, he wrote a book named ‘Jahan-e-Rumi’ about the famous poet Rumi. Before passing away in 2021, he was working on a book about the 1957 super-hit film ‘Mother India’, which was the first Indian film to be nominated for an Oscar. He also wrote a book titled ‘Bombay Talkies’ about old Bollywood classics.
Bombay Talkies written by Rajkumar Keswani
He also wrote a book titled ‘Breaking the Big Stories’, which narrates the experiences of journalists around the world who covered the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. He was a member of Keswani Foundation, an organization run by his family.
award
- BD Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism in 1985
A photograph of Rajkumar Keswani receiving the BD Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism in 1985
- Prem Bhatia Award for Outstanding Environmental Reporting in 2010
Death
On 21 May 2021, Rajkumar Keswani died due to complications following COVID-19. He was earlier being treated at JP Hospital in Bhopal, from where he was shifted to Bansal Hospital.
Facts/General Knowledge
- In 2014, a film titled ‘Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain’ about the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy was released, starring a journalist named Motwani who documents the horrors of the tragedy. Reportedly, the character was inspired by Keswani.
- In 2023, the web series ‘The Railway Men: The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984’ featured a character named Jagmohan Kumawat (played by Sunny Hinduja), who was inspired by Rajkumar Keswani.
- He loved hockey and supported various hockey players of Bhopal.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn