BHOPAL AT 41: THE NIGHT ENDED, BUT THE TRAGEDY INDUSTRY CONTINUES

Forty-one years after the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, India continues its yearly act of remembrance. What we refuse to face is a deeper, more painful truth: the real tragedy of Bhopal is not only what happened on the tragic night of December 2-3, 1984, but also what occurred in the decades afterwards — the paraly-

- RAKESH K. CHITKARA

sis of action, the politicisation, the profiteering, and the astonishing inability of a nation to close a chapter.

The gas leak lasted hours; the “Bhopal issue” persisted for four decades. Not because it couldn't be resolved, but because far too many people benefited from leaving it unresolved.

What unfolded after 1984 was the creation of a tragedy industry. NGOs, activists, international donors, and even corporate CSR programs descended on Bhopal — some truly sincere, and many scripted. Nearly all operated on an unspoken incentive: if the tragedy ever reached closure, their relevance, funding, and ideological platform would vanish.

Successive governments, both at the Centre and in Madhya Pradesh, repeatedly lost courage. Instead of leading rehabilitation, they relinquished ground to an activist ecosystem that opposed nearly every attempt at scientific remediation. Some bureaucrats and agrochemical leaders spoke, but not publicly, that the site was safe enough for redevelopment. Administrations that should have acted feared protest optics and allowed policy paralysis.

Another set of actors quickly filled this gap - lawyers.

For some in the legal fraternity, Bhopal became a litigation fountain — an endless series of appeals, petitions, hearings, and conferences. High-profile, politically affiliated lawyers flew to the Jabalpur High Court in chartered planes regularly. The fight for “justice” became, effectively, a fight to maintain continuity. A resolved matter would end the stage on which this long legal theatre played out. Many survivors believed that the next court date would bring salvation. It never did.