BJP LEADER FOR APPEASING INDRA TO CONTROL POLLUTION
LUCKNOW: BJP leader Sunil Bharala, chairman of Labour Welfare Council (Shramik Kalyan Board) in Uttar Pradesh, has justified stubble burning by farmers claiming that the Yogi Adityanath government should attempt to please the rain god Indra instead to lower the alarming pollution levels in UP as well as in Delhi.
Bharala position is equal to a cabinet ranked minister. “I agree that pollution is a cause of concern for all of us. But instead of blaming stubble burning by farmers, a yagna should be be organised by the government to please Indra. This has been a tradition, a timetested technique since ancient days. And if the gods are pleased, everything would be solved,” said Bharala while talking to HT on phone.
As the opposition chuckled at the BJP leader’s suggestion, which came barely a day after chief minister Yogi Adityanath held a meeting of senior officials to discuss ways to combat
pollution and advised farmers against stubble burning, Bharala maintained that stubble burning didn’t contribute to pollution.
Six UP cities, including some in western UP, where Bharala belongs to, have been classified among India’s most polluting ones with UP BJP government putting on hold all road relaying works and ordering seizure of all diesel and other polluting vehicles.
Schools in several parts of the state, including western UP, have been closed in wake of alarming AQI.
The video of an interview Bharala gave to a news agency showed the BJP leader giving the suggestion to his own party’s government, which had also directed municipal corporations to check garbage burning.
“For people like us who are originally farmers, this systematic identification of stubble burning as the main cause of pollution is worrying. I think farmers have been burning stubble for ages. This burning of waste from the crop does create some smoke but it isn’t any threat. It has been a natural system followed by farmers for ages. Instead, we should go back to our ancient system of holding yagnas,” he said.
The opposition pooh-poohed Bharala’s suggestion. “We would like chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who is to visit western UP on Monday, to clear the air on the subject. A day after he advised against stubble burning, one of his own party leaders have made a suggestion that only exposes the bankruptcy of thought and callous disregard of environment,” said Samajwadi Party leader IP Singh.
The Congress too wanted to know if the government agreed with the leader. “This government has made the country and the state a laughing stock. They are running their government in the name of Lord Ram when the fact is that everything about them is Ram Bharose (completely dependent on God). They neither have leaders nor any vision,” said UP Congress secretary Devendra Pratap Singh.