Thursday, 15 May 2025
Thursday, 15 May 2025
Delhi woke up to a sky choked with dust and an AQI that touched 500 in parts of the city. But instead of emergency action, what followed was a full-blown political slugfest. As the air turned toxic, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) turned to what they do best — pointing fingers at each other.
Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was quick to fire the first shot. “Air pollution was never this bad during AAP regime at this time of the year,” he posted on X.
The message was clear — the BJP-led administration had failed to keep Delhi’s air under control.
AAP leader Atishi took the fight further.
Quoting data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), she said: “Delhi’s AQI has never been so high in May. CPCB’s own data shows that from 2022-2024, AQI on May 15 never exceeded 243. Today AQI is at 500. Will BJP take responsibility for the worsening air pollution in Delhi? Where is Delhi’s Environment minister?”
Instead of responding with a plan, Delhi environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa chose to hit back. “Today's spike in AQI was due to a weather event, not misgovernance,” he wrote, dismissing the criticism. But the counterattack didn’t stop there. “For 10 years, AAP allowed Delhi to drown in mountains of untreated legacy waste, broken and dust-choked roads with ZERO accountability on pollution!”
Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia joined in with a grim update.
Sharing a screenshot of the 500 AQI reading, he said: “The four engines of the BJP government are emitting smoke in Delhi. The AQI in Delhi is currently 500 -- meaning poison! Sunlight is not visible, one cannot breathe, eyes burn, and throat is sore. No planning, no accountability, no emergency plan. Only speeches and slogans.”
For the BJP, the weather was the culprit. For AAP, the numbers said otherwise. But while both sides dug into their talking points, the people of Delhi were left to deal with the consequences.
One user posted on X, "For 10 years under AAP government, Delhi only had bad air during winters Back then, BJP kept blaming AAP. “Delhi isn’t serious about pollution.” “Punjab and parali are the real problems.” Now it’s May: No winter. No parali. No excuses. And guess what? BJP now controls all 4 engines: LG, CM, MCD, Centre. Still, Delhi’s AQI is 999. Delhi voted for “change”. What they got: no clean air no water power cuts fee hikes and silence from the government. No public health advisory. No emergency response. Just noise."
Another wrote, "Today, Delhi-NCR are proudly breathing in a cocktail of: Dust, PM 2.5, PM 10, NO2, SO2, CO, ozone, and a sprinkle of seasonal pollen. Our lungs just unlocked Level: Industrial Vacuum Cleaner. Stay strong, human fellow and don’t breathe too long and too deep."
One user said, "Why is no one talking about this? Delhi is facing a full-blown health emergency — air quality worse than peak winter levels, and it's only May. This is not normal. And, our so-called CM, is nowhere to be seen. People are suffering. Do something."
In a city that has long lived under a permanent layer of smog, the real crisis isn’t just the air — it’s the silence that follows every spike in pollution, broken only by political chest-thumping.
