No government loses elections for poisoning its people. No bureaucrat is penalized for inaction. No industry pays for environmental crimes. The only ones paying are the people – with breath, blood and lifespan.
In the power-packed group photograph above, Hon’ble Prime Minister and President attend the oath taking ceremony of the Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant at Rashtrapati Bhavan on November 24, 2025 – a day marked by the usual hazardous AQI in New Delhi.
Delhi’s pollution crisis is not a winter surprise anymore. It is an annual, predictable disaster, like a slow-motion gas chamber that descends every October and refuses to lift until spring. Schools shut (not this year though), hospitals overflow, and residents wake up to their phones screaming “Hazardous” on AQI apps. Yet our leaders continue their favourite performance: denial. Delhi, they insist, is perfectly fine – and pollution is probably a Western conspiracy, probably invented by foreign companies selling air purifiers.
Delhi, ironically, has everything that should guarantee cleaner air: the Prime Minister resides here, the public pays with both taxes and health, and money has never been in short supply. Yet we are supposed to pretend that the problem is invisible, or worse, inevitable. As if pollution has been scrubbed out with a political highlighter – Delhi has PM, Public, and Paisa… but no Pollution!
To call this ‘neglect’ would be too polite; this is willful governance paralysis. Every year, crop burning becomes the favourite scapegoat. Yes, stubble burning deepens the crisis – but it is only 10 to 20 percent of the problem. The rest is home-grown: vehicles choking the roads, unchecked construction dust, thermal power plants surrounding the capital, garbage fires, and an unregulated industrial fringe. But acknowledging these would mean taking responsibility – and that’s a dangerous concept in Indian politics.
The bureaucracy and scientific fraternity isn’t doing any better. Policies are drafted, then filed away in dusty cupboards. Reports are written so that they can be ignored.
Meanwhile, citizens are asked to stay indoors and wear masks – because the state would rather manage suffering than manage solutions. Children grow up with inhalers as their first toys, lungs aged before their time, while leaders enjoy filtered indoor air and filtered public narratives.
The worst tragedy? Low accountability. No government loses elections for poisoning its people. No bureaucrat is penalized for inaction. No industry pays for environmental crimes. The only ones paying are the people – with breath, blood and lifespan.
Delhi doesn’t need another action plan, another committee, or another layer of excuses. It needs courage to enforce real regulations, and treat clean air not as charity, but a constitutional right.
Until that day, Delhi’s air will remain the most honest thing about the city – toxic, neglected and impossible to ignore, even if the political class insists “there is no pollution.”