This 25-year campaign has become an industry feeding on suffering.

I salute the individuals who have fought for 25 years to help the victims of the Bhopal gas disaster. Their dedication has been exemplary. They have fought energetically for compensation, medical treatment and justice. The world has not forgotten its worst industrial disaster because these individuals have never tired of recalling the diabolical inferno of that night.

But while I recognise the immense suffering of victims and am prepared to accept that a new generation probably still suffers from ailments directly arising from having inhaled the gas as children, it is time to stop their activism.

It's time for the Bhopal NGOs to draw a line under the tragedy and move on. This is, of course, easy for someone like me to say. I did not see a loved one die an excruciating death. My lungs have not been damaged from inhaling the methyl isocyanate that leaked out of the Union Carbide pesticide factory, making breathing painful and earning a living impossible.

But victims cannot continue to be victims for 25 years. To be a victim is to feel helpless and humiliated. Instead of helping them to find closure and move on, the voluntary groups in Bhopal have kept picking at the scab. Victimhood has been institutionalised.