Air Quality Dips After Diwali, BJP–AAP Trade Blame Over Pollution Crisis

Delhi's declining air quality after Diwali sparked a political slugfest, with the ruling BJP blaming stubble burning in Punjab, which is run by Arvind Kejriwal, for the issue, and the opposition AAP attacking the city government. Saurabh Bharadwaj, head of the AAP's Delhi chapter, questioned the Rekha Gupta-led BJP government in Delhi about why it did not take action to create artificial rain to handle the situation.

Additionally, he accused the Delhi administration of working "hand in glove" with the firecracker industry lobby and said that prohibited firecrackers were set off during Diwali.

The AAP leader also blamed the BJP for the lack of available air quality index (AQI) data on Diwali night.

Hitting back, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, in a statement, accused AAP leaders, including Bharadwaj, of indulging in "appeasement politics to secure their minority vote bank" by pinning the blame of nose-diving air quality on Diwali and firecracker bursting.

"That is why they continue to spread confusion among the public on one issue or another. Currently, AAP leaders are making statements blaming the rise in pollution on firecrackers and are calling for another ban on them." Sachdeva asserted that firecracker bursting on Diwali was a "welcome sign", and there has been "no significant negative impact on the air pollution situation in the city".

The morning of October 31, 2024, the day after Diwali in the previous year, while the AAP was in power, Delhi's air quality index (AQI) was 396.  According to Sachdeva, Delhi's average AQI on October 21 of this year was 356.

"Successive Congress and Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP governments did no concrete work to control pollution or improve the situation. Now, when the Rekha Gupta-led BJP government is working in a planned manner to improve the situation, AAP leaders -- experts in making statements -- are actively trying to derail it," he claimed.

Sachdeva asserted that the farmers in AAP-ruled Punjab were clearing their fields that involved stubble burning. Between October 11 and October 19, a total of 309 major stubble burning incidents were registered in Punjab, he claimed.

"It is shameful that the AAP government in Punjab neither helped the farmers earlier to prevent stubble burning nor is it offering any assistance now to the flood-affected farmers to stop them from burning stubble," the BJP leader charged.

Sachdeva further stated it is "true" that pollution levels in Delhi have increased; however, it's a fact that reports of stubble burning in Punjab started coming in two to three days before the pollution rise began on October 17.

AAP leaders hit out at the BJP government in Delhi, alleging that banned firecrackers were openly burst alongside the "so-called green ones".

"Delhi's AQI on my phone app is showing at 600. I have no idea what the BJP government has done to cause this. But the fact remains that the chief minister herself does not even know how to correctly pronounce AQI -- yet she keeps talking about IQ, AIQ, and other such terms. She simply lacks that understanding," Bharadawaj charged.

He further said the Delhi government had planned artificial rain after Diwali to control pollution, but nothing is happening, and asked whether the BJP wanted people to fall sick.

With PTI inputs.