Has Delhi’s bad air become another cynical political game for AAP, BJP and Congress?

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has rejected as “misleading” the data presented by a Narendra Modi government-run agency on air pollution.

Illustration by Soham Sen | ThePrint

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has rejected as “misleading” the data presented by a Narendra Modi government-run agency, which said that stubble burning in neighbouring states contributes to only about 10 per cent of Delhi’s air pollution. Kejriwal said the findings by SAFAR rely on “baseless guesses”. Air quality in parts of Delhi slipped to “very poor” category Thursday and is expected to drop further over the weekend.

ThePrint asks: Has Delhi’s bad air become another cynical political game for AAP, BJP and Congress?

CM Arvind Kejriwal has always gone the extra mile but opposition just wants to earn brownie points

Somnath Bharti
Founding member, AAP

Any government or political party looking to fix a problem like Delhi’s air pollution should not politicise it. It must be solved by those in power because it is their duty to do so.

How does one curb air pollution? Look for sources and fix them. In 2017, along with the odd-even rule, we promoted cycling as well. Human actions have to be brought to a point where they can be called ‘pro-nature’, so that we don’t pollute the air. The AAP’s agenda is to encourage people to use environment-friendly modes of transport. We are working very hard on improving the infrastructure to make public transport more available and affordable so that people choose buses and metros over their personal vehicles.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been seeking cooperation from the Narendra Modi government as well as from the neighbouring states for a long time. His approach has always been to go the extra mile by talking to the opposition parties as well.

Stubble burning has always been a primary source of air pollution in Delhi, especially during these months of the year.

The opposition parties say and do things to earn brownie points, but they won’t do anything to fix problems. We know who is there to serve the people and who is there to just do politics.

Irresponsible of Kejriwal to question govt data when he’s done nothing to curb Delhi’s air pollution

Sudhanshu Mittal
Senior leader, BJP

No, Delhi’s air pollution menace is not a political game among parties. It has actually been the effort of only one party to make it a political game – the Aam Aadmi Party.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claims his government has been able to reduce pollution levels in the city, but has not produced any data to support that claim. But, when the Modi government releases data, he suddenly has an objection to it.

Such statements made must be judged on the basis of what has actually been achieved on the ground.

When Kejriwal claimed that the air pollution level in Delhi had been reduced by 25 per cent, he used central government data to back that assertion. But, to now question the central government findings in light of his party’s failure in controlling Delhi’s air pollution is the politics of a loser.

Since 2015, Delhi’s AAP government under Kejriwal has done nothing to curb pollution, except put out advertisements boasting about its success. Kejriwal has taken no concrete steps when it comes to acknowledging the sources of air pollution like the unregulated operations of factories.

After having done nothing in the last four years, it is irresponsible of Arvind Kejriwal to make these statements.

Odd-even not enough, Delhi needs tougher action to check air pollution

Chandra Bhushan
Environmentalist

Air pollution is now an important issue for political parties, but it has taken a long time for them to come on board. Ten years back, they were cynical. ‘It’s the price that you pay for development’ was the position of the political parties on this issue.

Air pollution is now part of the political mainstream, which is a positive development. Now the fight is over who is to be blamed – and someone needs to be held accountable.

Arvind Kejriwal believes that Punjab is responsible for Delhi’s air pollution problem. The Congress and the BJP say that AAP hasn’t done enough. I believe both the AAP and the opposition are partly correct.

Stubble burning contributes significantly to air pollution during a certain period of the year. At least 25-30 per cent of Delhi’s air pollution during this season can be attributed to stubble burning.

But that’s just part of the problem, rest of the blame must be laid at Delhi’s doorsteps. Arvind Kejriwal has done nothing except introducing the odd-even scheme. Delhi needs a tougher approach to check the rising levels of air pollution.

AAP must get all parties on board to curb pollution. Kejriwal’s ‘tu tu main main’ politics is of no use

Jaiveer Shergill
National spokesperson, Congress

Reducing an important issue like air pollution to usual political blame game is a grave injustice to the cause of safe and healthy environment. Political parties in India must negotiate a pact for combating pollution, and shun their addiction of blaming their opponents for short-term benefits.

Now, Arvind Kejriwal should accept scientific reports suggesting that stubble burning is only a minute contributor to Delhi’s air pollution. He must take lessons from Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who despite knowing that Punjab is heavily dependent on agriculture, is still making efforts to reduce stubble burning in the state and is not falling into the trap of Kejriwal’s tu tu main main politics.

Rather than questioning the findings of experts alerting the contributing factors to air pollution, Kejriwal should share his government’s report card of work done in Delhi. The Delhi CM must tell people what his party has achieved in the last four years to combat pollution arising from construction sites, heaps of garbage dumps, and auto emission.

The AAP should convince all political parties to come on board to resolve Delhi’s air pollution issue. Ultimately, when two elephants fight, it’s only the grass underneath that feels the impact. Similarly, the people of Delhi should not become victims of Kejriwal’s politics of excuses and finger-pointing opponents.

Responsibility to ensure Delhi’s air remains clean is not on one political party alone

Gopal Sankaranarayanan
Advocate

The responsibility to ensure that Delhi’s air remains clean is not on one political party alone.

The BJP as the ruling party needs to ensure that more rigorous steps are taken towards cleaner fuel. The central government must ensure that any measure adopted is properly implemented. Some of which include making sure firecracker industries manufacture green firecrackers, and ensuring that Bharat Stage (BS) IV emission norms are not violated.

The Modi government needs to move faster towards enforcing BS-VI norms and encouraging the production of more electric vehicles. The heavy import duties the central government has imposed on electric vehicles are adding to the problem.

The Punjab government needs to come up with short-term measures to combat stubble burning, which the Supreme Court has time and again asked it to do. It should follow what California in the US does –consult with the MET department for specific windows of time for crop burning when the wind isn’t blowing towards urban centres.

Although the AAP has come up with a few solutions such as the odd-even scheme, these are only token efforts. The bigger issue is the public transport system in the city. The AAP chose to increase the availability of CNG busses when electric buses were clearly the better alternative. We also have a good Metro system but haven’t achieved last-mile connectivity yet.

By Taran Deol, journalist at ThePrint