5 Bizarre Statements Our Politicians Made This Smog Season

The festive season is finally over and apart from the post-festive blues, what the people of North-India have become used to experiencing is toxic, polluted air, or what is scientifically called ‘smog’. Smog is nothing but your friendly winter fog mixed with an unwanted amount of pollen, dust, and other pollutants. While anyone would want to avoid this toxic air, strangely, it is becoming an annual occurrence in the northern belt of India, due to a plethora of reasons such as stubble burning, vehicular emissions, industrial pollution, and firecracker emissions (yes, you read that right, the ban didn’t seem to go down well here).

Although air pollution is the prime reason behind 80 deaths per day in Delhi-NCR, our lawmakers seem to be unfazed by this data. What they seem to be more interested in is blaming each other for the smog and suggesting that school children write letters to the CMs of Punjab and Haryana demanding actionable solutions.

Now, this air pollution is not a new phenomenon and has become a routine occurrence over the past three years. In an ideal scenario, there should have been active steps taken by the government to prevent this from happening year after year. Our elected representatives have some suggestions for us on how to deal with the #DelhiSmog. Read on to know what our politicians have to say!

#PollutionPaath 1: Prakash Javadekar Says “Start Your Day with Music…”

On November 3, when the air quality skyrocketed to 1400 (hazardous level) in many parts of Delhi-NCR, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar tweeted a bit of very interesting advice—for us to start the day by listening to ‘scintillating’ music. While listening to good music can cheer anyone on a dull day, this was certainly not a solution to the gloomy smog-filled Sunday morning, where all you could see was smoke, dust, and pollutants outside your window. Such was the scenario, that even being indoor felt similar to staying in a gas chamber. We expected better from you, Mr. Javadekar.

#PollutionPaath 2: Perform ‘Yagnas’ To Tackle Pollution- Create Pollution To Reduce Pollution?

As shocking as it sounds, Uttar Pradesh Minister, Sunil Bharala seemed to be convinced that performing ‘yajnas’ or the Hindu ritual performed to please gods, was the only way to deal with the toxic smog. According to him, stubble burning is a natural activity performed since time immemorial and the smoke resulting due to it cannot be prevented. Instead of criticising it, Bharala said that governments should perform ‘yajnas’ to please Lord Indra who would set things right by ushering rainfall.

Not sure which era we are in!

#PollutionPaath 3: A Carrot A Day, Keeps The Pollution Away?

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan suggested a dietary specification to deal with the pollution—Carrots.

Apparently, munching on carrots can be a good way to deal with the side effects of smog. When the entire city was gasping for breath and struggling to deal with respiratory ailments, this advice appeared to be quite inappropriate. It did not seem to go down well on Twitter.

#PollutionPaath 4: Blame Thy Neighbour, Whenever Something Goes Wrong

Moving on from solutions, our political leaders have now started analysing the reasons behind the smog. According to BJP leader Vineet Agarwal Sharda, neither stubble burning or vehicular emission, but Pakistan and China are responsible for India’s contaminated air. He feels that out of sheer jealously our two neighbours have been releasing ‘poisonous gases’ to create the smog cover in the northern belt. A fact to be noted here is that Lahore and several other parts of Pakistan have been facing extremely poor air quality as well.

If this is true, the plot needs to be solved soon. Wonder who is the mastermind behind this!

#PollutionPaath 5: When You’re Not Able To Agree With The Solution, Defy It!

BJP MP Vijay Goel seems to be at loggerheads with Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party. To tackle increasing levels of pollution, Arvind Kejriwal had announced the reintroduction of the ‘Odd-Even’ scheme from November 4 to 15. Mr. Goel openly defied the rule and tweeted that the scheme is “useless” and that he will take out his car with an odd number plate on the first day (November 4) of the scheme to oppose the rule.

Not only this, yesterday evening, he put out a tweet saying that he, along with several other ministers, propose to ride a bicycle to Manish Sisodia’s residence today, November 7, to give a “bunch of parali (stubble)”. Now that is some entertainment!

What message do you have for our leaders? Share your thoughts with us here.

Featured Image credit: Prakash Javadekar, Sunil Bharala, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Vineet Agarwal Sharda, Vijay Goel/Facebook