In November of 2023, the Supreme Court made an attempt to level a worsening air pollution crisis by banning the sale of fireworks nationwide during Diwali. Unsurprisingly, critics have termed the Supreme Court’s ruling as useless. When AQI rankings went south, many turned to other causes of air pollution apart from fireworks, one of the most notable was stubble burning in farms across Punjab and Haryana.
The topic of stubble burning is not new, with the issue being commented by multiple publications as a source of pollution in the region, which was made worse by both the green revolution, and subsidies in 1997 furthering market failures and inequality amongst farmers. This has meant that the economic vulnerabilities of farmers and air pollution in major cities as a consequence, became material for political mudslinging between parties.
One of the most vocal parties in terms of pollution has been the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), AAP under leadership of CM Arvind Kejriwal, has been in power in Delhi since 2015. In the duration of this period, AAP has found itself beefing with opposition parties who have traditionally held Punjab and Haryana. In 2021, AAP had criticised stubble burning as a role of government failures from opposition parties towards ending stubble burning, with Kejriwal emphasising these failures as opposition failures, and pointed to the supposed success of his government claiming in 2019 that pollution in Delhi decreased by 25%, which many environmental organisations would take objection to. At the time, Kejriwal was seen as meritable as it was widely reported that stubble burning has worsened since the late 2000s, but since 2022, AAP’s discourse has taken a rather interesting change to many analysts.
In 2022, AAP won the state elections in Punjab from the INC, since then AAP has taken a very soft tone towards the problem, citing it as an internalised issue, with Kejriwal calling it an internal failure of action in response to pre-existing opposition policy in November 2022, and urged that farmers aren’t to be blamed. His criticisms would shift purely to Haryana due to the NDA coalition in power. The regional party Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) criticised Kejriwal, commenting how Kejriwal sugar-coated his party’s contributions towards the failure of policy. Opposition parties such as the BJP wouldn’t do much as narratives such as the fireworks ban being a hypocritical move compared to stubble burning, a narrative boldly evident during the Farmers Protests of 2021, which in the process eroded discussion on stubble burning in the lens of inter-party cooperation and government policy reform .
In the grand picture, it’s evident that the blames and criticisms of AAP, and other national and regional political parties have purely been on the basis of political interests. Proactive measures for farmers and sustainability are primary steps in a long journey to reduce the impacts of stubble burning and more detailed measures to reduce market failures in the region require universal cooperation. Until then, progress to halt air pollution and support agricultural sustainability remains in stalemate.
P.C. -
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