Three Wrong Ways to Talk about ‘Delhi Smog’

Ablinding smog settled over large parts of the Indo–Gangetic plain across Northern India in November (Hindu 2017). The annual fog problem has now become a smog problem as the Air Quality Index (AQI) readings went literally off the charts (Feltman 2017). Though the problems faced by those in Delhi and the National Capital Region seemed to receive the most coverage, as satellite pictures showed, it was a problem faced across Northern India (Ashok 2017). AQI was probably even worse in smaller, less heralded cities such as Varanasi, Moradabad, and Ludhiana.

Poor air quality affects everyone, though it does affect children, the elderly and those with pre-existing respiratory conditions even more. Comparisons were immediately drawn between the experiences and practices of the administration in China to tackle pollution in Beijing, and other cities such as Mexico City. Questions were asked about why the same could not be done here (Sehgal 2017). Blame was laid at the feet of the Aam Aadmi Party-run Delhi government, which in turn blamed it on the Congress-led Punjab government, which in turn suggested that the fault lay with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led union government, which then set up a seven-member committee to look for solutions (PTI 2017), even though there does not seem to be any shortage of solutions to the issue (VCLP 2017).