The Big Story: Clearing the air

The Delhi government and the Centre finally woke up on Sunday to the gravity of the horrendously poor air quality in some parts of North India. Air toxicity levels are 40 times higher than World Health Organisation standards, according to data from pollution monitoring agencies. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who described the city as a "gas chamber", chaired a cabinet meeting and ordered schools in Delhi to stay shut until Wednesday – a decision many felt should have come much earlier, given the toxic levels of pollution since Diwali.

The Delhi government has banned construction and demolition activities for a few days and is considering a plan to induce artificial rain to help dust particles settle down. Power stations around Delhi are set to close down this week and the odd-even car formula, by which vehicles ply only every other day, could be back.

On its part, the Centre will hold a meeting of environment ministers of neighbouring states on Monday to tackle the problem of crop stubble burning on farms, a major cause of pollution in Delhi.

The reason behind this frenetic activity in the corridors of power is not hard to understand. The public mood has turned angry since Saturday as people in the Capital began to feel nothing was being done to mitigate the situation. On Sunday, some people took to the streets to protest against government apathy.

But despite the alarming situation, the city's rulers still could not resist the temptation to score political points over the issue. Union Environment Minister Anil Dave was quick to absolve farmers in poll-bound Punjab of any responsibility for the worsening air in New Delhi, claiming that stubble burning contributed just 20% of the pollutants. This was also a strategy to ensure that the Delhi government did not deflect responsibility for the mess, as Kejriwal had attempted to do by blaming crop burning for the problem. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi also tried to land a punch by asking the city's current government to take some lessons about tackling the situation from his party colleague Sheila Dixit, the former Delhi chief minister.

But the positions of all these politicians is flawed. Delhi's pollution menace has not emerged overnight. The toxic smog it sees today is the result of years of misplaced development priorities, which provided incentives for unsustainable growth. The Capital's exploding vehicle population which crossed 17 million in 2015, is the direct result of short-term traffic solutions such as flyovers that encourage the use of private vehicles. Despite its efforts to build a metro rail network, Delhi still reels under the alarming levels of exhaust fumes, highlighting the city's failure to create an integrated public transport system.

Besides, some of Delhi's citizens haven't woken up to the enormity of the situation. On Sunday, even as a shroud of smog hung over the city, some people lit fireworks to celebrate weddings and the Chat Puja festival.

It is easy to blame farmers for the situation, but part of the problem is the half-baked farm assistance they get in states like Punjab and Haryana. Farmers burn the stubble because they cannot afford the wages of workers to remove the crop stumps. Ploughing the stubble into the soil is uneconomical, which is why farmers resort to the quick-and-dirty solution of burning. At the moment, it is clear that the state governments are ill-equipped to support farmers to use other methods of removing crop waste.

The Centre would do well to realise that air pollution is not a uniquely Delhi problem. It has only manifested in its worst form in the Capital. Around the country, the same model of civic development that failed in Delhi is being replicated. Even the government's pet Smart Cities plan does not deal with the problem of pollution with the seriousness it deserves. Unless there is an intelligent, systemic change that focuses on sustainability, it's only be a matter of time before other big cities go the Delhi way.

The Big Scroll

  • The toxic air in Delhi had forced residents to protest on the streets and on the internet.
  • The air over Delhi on Diwali was the most toxic in the world.
  • No city is an island: Lessons from Delhi's odd-even experiment.
  • Activism alone won’t end the farm fires that are hurting public health in North India.
  • Why we should be alarmed at NASA’s images of burning fields in Punjab (but also get used to them).

Political pickings

  1. Was the jailbreak in Madhya Pradesh that led to the encounter of eight terror accused an inside job? The Indian Express on the investigations in the case. 
  2. In Gujarat, OBC leader Alpesh Thakor held a massive anti-liquor rally with the backing of Patels, a development that does not bode well for the Bharatiya Janata Party. 
  3. In Karnataka, the government is all set for a showdown with Hindu groups over Tippu Sultan birth anniversary celebrations.

Punditry

  1. In The Hindu, Stanly Johny writes on the legacy of the Barack Obama administration and its perceived failures on foreign policy.  
  2. Vikram Mehta writes in the Indian Express on the need for a new swadeshi index to assess ease of doing business. 
  3. In the New York Times, Peter Wehner discusses the challenges before the Republican party after the presidential elections. 

Don't miss

Like Patels in Gujarat, the Marathas in Maharashtra showcased their affluence during a rally in Mumbai demanding reservations.

"Marathas are not backward at all,” asserted Abhijit Takle, 28, a hardware engineer living in Chunabhatti in central Mumbai. “We are on top of everyone else. It is just that the backward people are getting facilities ahead of us. Even people who come from Uttar Pradesh get facilities before Marathi people.