New Delhi: Punjab recorded 1,152 farm fires on 8 November, the day of Diwali, nearly seven times the number of fires recorded the previous day, according to satellite-monitoring data reported on Monday. This takes the state’s tally of farm fires to 4,456 for this paddy season.
The sharp rise in fires has triggered allegations of arson. At a press briefing Monday, Delhi Labour Minister Kapil Mishra claimed that people had entered the fields of farmers across Punjab and set them ablaze while they were celebrating with their families.
“Since yesterday evening, we have started receiving calls from farmers in Punjab. Calls also came to me and other people in our government, saying that fields were being set on fire at night. While farmers were celebrating Diwali at home, people were suddenly setting fire to their fields and running away,” Mishra said at a press conference.
Mishra said that Punjab had been recording around 100 to 120 farm fires on the days leading up to Diwali, with 125 recorded the day before. He said that the fires were a conspiracy to defame Diwali and accused Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders in Punjab of orchestrating the incidents.
In response, AAP leader and former Delhi health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj urged the “fraud government” to think scientifically while discussing pollution data.
“Even if your Punjab theory is believed, smoke takes 2-3 days to travel from Punjab to Delhi. Stubble burnt on Diwali night in Punjab cannot reach Delhi in 10 minutes. Have some shame and stop committing fraud with Delhi’s AQI data. People can get very sick and even die because of your pollution data manipulation,” Bharadwaj wrote on X.
Reply to the Fraud Government
👉🏼At least pretend to think scientifically when discussing pollution data.
👉🏼Even if your Punjab theory is believed, smoke takes 2-3 days to travel from Punjab to Delhi. Stubble burnt on Diwali night in Punjab cannot reach Delhi in 10 minutes.… pic.twitter.com/aoHZMIW2jv
— Saurabh Bharadwaj (@Saurabh_MLAgk) November 9, 2026
Also Read: There’s a data gap in Delhi’s post-Diwali pollution picture
Check AAP leaders’ records
Mishra, who joined the BJP in 2019, and is now the Vice-President of the Delhi BJP, was earlier an AAP MLA representing Karawal Nagar. Although he presented no proof of AAP’s involvement in the sudden spike in farm fires, he asked Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwat Mann to register FIRs where the fires had been reported, and to investigate the incidents.
“Why had the people sitting in Delhi and those who had travelled from Delhi to Punjab started creating this atmosphere against Diwali two days earlier? They were making derogatory remarks about Diwali and insulting Hindu festivals,” Mishra said.
He also demanded phone records of AAP legislators and urged authorities to investigate them too.
“The phone records of Aam Aadmi Party MLAs and leaders in those areas, and of the AAP group that has come from Delhi and is stationed in Punjab, should be checked. These people got the fires started,” he said.
Mishra added that even farmers in Punjab were “suffocating” and did not want to burn so much stubble since the conditions were already bad.
According to the data from the Indian Space Research Organisation’s fire monitoring protocol, of all the fires in Punjab this year, 2,998 fields have been inspected and 1,317 sites have been verified to be cases of stubble burning. Tarn Taran is the worst-affected district, reporting nearly 684 fire incidents.