Arguably, the world’s most polluted city goes for polls in the next few days. Delhi carries the distinction of having the worst air quality amongst all cities in the world and has constantly been maintaining its number one position over the years. Depending on whether it’s a good day or a bad day, the citizens of Delhi in winters breathe in toxicity commensurate to smoking 10-50 cigarettes. Imagine the toddlers and the kids doing that on a wintry day.
The statistics and data regarding the deaths, heart-attacks, strokes, lung cancer and other pulmonary disease in the capital due to air pollution are firmly in place, published time and again and thus need no second mention. Even the majority of the important international events are now sought to be scheduled in a way so as to escape the Delhi pollution, despite, being the capital. It will be impossible to see the Indian Cricket Team playing any match in Delhi during the winter months.
While the statistics and numbers, as damning as they may be, are not required. A day out in Delhi winters is enough. The cough, the congestion, the headache, the stinging eyes. The subtle advise of the doctors to shift the elderlies to other cities during winters, the online classes for children, the thick dystopian air of gloom, the impossibility of a healthy run or a night stroll, the mental toll of cooped up inside with an air purifier (if you can afford one), the frustrated admonishment of Supreme Court, the gimmicky odd water sprinkler on the roads. The thing about Delhi air, is that in a way it is a great leveler, destroying the health and immunity of the rich and poor alike.
Now the plot thickens (or shall we say the smog thickens), when the city with poison in its air goes for polls.
Amazingly, there is a complete radio silence about the air pollution, the AQI, the PM 2.5 in the run up to the Delhi Elections. There are virtually no barbs, no talks, no debate, no agenda, no manifesto, no brickbats in the run up to the polls regarding the poison in Delhi’s air. As if the air we breathe is not important enough.
In the year 2020, AAP in its “guarantees” had promised for a “pollution free Delhi” and had vowed to “reduce the pollution to a third of current levels”. We all know that the said promise has fallen flat, and, from the toddlers to the elderlies, everyone is smoking packs of proverbial cigarettes every day in the winters. But that is not the shocker. Come 2025, AAP in its typical style has released 15 “guarantees” for the upcoming polls. Air pollution in Delhi is nowhere mentioned in it!
It is safe to say that the incumbent government has given up on improving the air quality in Delhi. The question is not whether a government through policies or concerted effort would be able to improve the air quality, the more worrisome bit is that it does not even feature in the manifesto of the incumbent government. Even false hopes cannot seem to pierce the thick smog.
Kejriwal, once a firebrand politician, had resigned from the position of Chief Minister after being 49 days in power, over Jan Lokpal Bill, seems to be not acknowledging the poison in Delhi’s air and dismissing it curtly as a North India problem or Central Government issue. It will not be misplaced to say that the people of Delhi over numerous elections have given enormous mandates to AAP to fight the status quo and the system but AAP’s fight for clean air has definitely dissipated in smoke.
Now in a scenario where AAP has been in power for about 12 years and is fighting incumbency, it is expected that the opposition parties would corner AAP on the issue of air pollution and provide for their own “guarantees” towards air quality in their manifesto.
Now, here the plot thickens even more.
While the opposition seeks to corner the incumbent government on “Sheesh Mahal”, liquor scam, freebies politics, corruption and other agendas but there appears to be no chatter or seemingly negligible chatter about the poison in the air. No barbs about kids breathing in the proverbial cigarettes. No tall emphatic claims in election rallies seem to be forthcoming regarding resolve to clean up Delhi’s air in case of power changing hands. It appears that the entire political spectrum has given up on Delhi’s air.
Well, it is safe to state that the toxic air is not an agenda in the upcoming elections. The political analysts working across the parties seem to be agreeable on one aspect, there are no gains to be made by making air quality in Delhi as an important focal point of the elections.
Would the toxic air we are breathing, matter in the upcoming elections. Probably not.
In the recent months, there is a Kafkaesque irony staring you in the face, when you flip through the newspaper. Side by side, there are articles which on one hand report real estate deals breaking barriers of Rs. 100 crores for a lavish apartment in Delhi/NCR while another report says that AQI has crossed the 500 mark and severest of GRAP norms have been imposed shutting down schools. The air does not seem to matter when pitted against the juggernaut of progress, growth, economic development, the struggles of daily life, the vanity and lavishness of lifestyle.
Do we collectively care about the air we breathe. Probably not.
We are number one and we shall remain number one.
The author is a Lawyer practising at the High Court of Delhi.