Delhi’s AAP govt blames everyone but itself for capital’s smog crisis on Twitter
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India

Delhi’s AAP govt blames everyone but itself for capital’s smog crisis on Twitter

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders have been busy blaming others, including the central govt, for the smog crisis.

Mohana Basu    
Vehicles ply amid an atmosphere shrouded in smog in New Delhi | PTI

Vehicles ply amid an atmosphere shrouded in smog in New Delhi | PTI File photo

New Delhi: Delhi’s air quality plunged to the season’s worst Sunday, but the Arvind Kejriwal administration has been busy blaming the public emergency on others, all but washing its own hands of responsibility.

On Friday, for example, Chief Minister Kejriwal posted a before-after pair of photos in a bid to depict the onset of smog, which coincides with Diwali and stubble-burning season.

Since then, he has repeatedly tweeted that the central government should take immediate steps to provide relief, and that Delhi was suffering for no fault of its own.

In a letter to Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, he said air pollution during this time of the year was not a Delhi problem, but something the whole of north India was grappling with.

Other AAP politicians also sought to place the blame for Delhi’s sorry condition on other political parties, or console the capital’s citizens by suggesting other cities were much worse off.

AAP’s Atishi shared a graphic that purportedly showed almost half of India covered in smog. In her tweet, she questioned Javadekar on steps he had taken over the last six months to prevent the smog, which has become an annual feature on north India’s winter calendar.

She also alleged that “in the past 3 months (Javadekar) has not found time to have a single meeting with environment ministers of north Indian states…” on air pollution.

“Three meetings were called, and each time meetings (sic) was cancelled,” she added.

While stubble burning is known to play a huge role in Delhi’s smog crisis, the capital has a low air quality through the year owing to a heavy vehicular population, which is estimated to account for up to 40 per cent of the capital’s pollution.

‘Varanasi more polluted’

The capital’s health minister Satyendar Jain remained silent on the pollution and only weighed in with a bunch of advice on the dos and don’ts of the smog season.

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia also took jibe on Javadekar, asking if the minister had completely lost faith in PM Narendra Modi and was looking at Kejriwal to run the country.

In his post, he attached an edited clip of Javadekar referring to Delhi spending “Rs 1,500 crore on buying machines for Punjab, Haryana farmers” that will prevent stubble burning, but the exact context can’t be made out.

The AAP’s official handle shared party spokesperson Raghav Chaddha’s comments on how Varanasi — which is the PM’s Lok Sabha constituency — was more polluted than Delhi.

He said six cities in Punjab and four in Haryana were among the top 10 most polluted after Varanasi, but not Delhi.

Delhi environment and transport minister Kailash Gahlot has been constantly tweeting about arrangements surrounding the odd-even scheme, which kicks in Monday and is aimed at reducing vehicular pollution.

Meanwhile, AAP social media strategist Ankit Lal retweeted any comments in support of the party narrative of Delhi being an innocent victim of the activities of other states.

The pollution crisis in Delhi comes right ahead of assembly polls for the union territory, and the smog is likely to weigh heavy on voters’ minds when they cast their vote. For the AAP, it is an especially important election since it has failed to make a mark in other states since its stunning performance in the 2015 Delhi polls, when it won 67 of 70 seats.

Also read: Delhi’s air pollution masks a class war that nobody is willing to talk about