Why Kejriwal cannot clean Delhi’s air
Chief minister is unable to solve pollution problem because he continues to think politics first, governance second
When in 2016 the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi imposed odd-even car rationing to reduce air pollution, I was surprised to see the support it got. People who did not like the AAP or its leaders one bit were all gung-ho about leaving their cars behind and using public transport. They felt great that they were doing their bit to reduce air pollution.
I insisted odd-even won’t work and no, I wasn’t a car owner. Everyone understands the ‘odd even’ move was a failure, but nobody wants to admit they were all wrong. Every winter some reporter asks Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his ministers whether odd-even will be back, and they sincerely reply that they will “consider” it. We keep breathing poison and the AAP never brings back a scheme it said was super successful.
Super successful it was, politically speaking. The carowning Delhi, perhaps the least likely to vote for AAP, was impressed, as was the working class that was still adding to pollution with motorcycles and wood fires.
Kejriwal has repeated the formula every winter for six years now. Every year, he has some new “idea” that is clearly not going to work, but a lot of money is wasted on advertising it. It’s the same story with ‘smog towers’ which are like installing a water filter in the ocean. It’s the same story with water guns, cloud seeding, vacuum cleaning of roads, even planting more grass to stop dust from flying around. The greater the failure, the greater the advertising. Mind you, it is not just the people of Delhi who are subjected to this propaganda blitzkrieg. Delhi taxpayer’s money is used to advertise across India, in the smallest of regional papers. After all, how else will Kejriwal become prime minister?
Advertising hollow achievements
All chief ministers, all state governments spend on advertising. But the AAP government has absolutely no sense of proportion when it comes to wasting taxpayers’ money on advertising Kejriwal’s hollow achievements. For example, Newslaundry, a news website, found that the Delhi government spent Rs6.8 million in two years on ‘stubble decomposers’, but Rs230 million to advertise it.
The AAP came to power in Punjab in March and has had many months to plan for the pollution season. What did the Punjab government do to plan for pollution season in the last 6 months? Kejriwal’s ads won’t tell you because they did nothing. They were busy planning a national expansion to support his prime ministerial ambitions.
Now that Kejriwal can’t blame the Punjab government, he blames the central government. But nobody asks why Haryana, which actually shares its borders with Delhi, has fewer farm fires than Punjab. Again, a Newslaundry report shames the Punjab government. There is a simple solution to this. How about the Delhi and Punjab governments spending less money on ads that trumpet their alleged achievements? Some of that money could be used to save our lungs and lives.