So, why the question, which one is brave, which coward? The Supreme Court on November 15 heard the Delhi Government squarely blame the farmers of neighbouring states for Delhi’s pollution and among the ‘neighbouring states’ there is Punjab and there is Uttar Pradesh. In both these states, farmers are burning stubble and nobody has the guts or the political will to tell them to bundle up and stop.

Clearly, the AAP is brave. The BJP chickened out. It waited for the apex court to pull up the Kejriwal Government for the poisonous air quality in Delhi and then sought the resignation of Kejriwal& Co. But that is not the reason why AAP is brave and BJP coward, the reason is in the fact that the AAP is not scared to rile the farmers by blaming them for the Delhi pollution while the BJP wouldn’t lift a little finger.

The Kejriwal dispensation told the top court it wouldn’t hesitate to impose a lockdown in the Capital to fight the poor air quality. But because air straddles borders seamlessly, the lockdown should extend into Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, too. Imagine the BJP’s petrification. There is a poll coming up in Uttar Pradesh, and also in Punjab.

The AAP doesn’t seem concerned about its winning chances in Punjab, while the BJP would not risk a gamble in Uttar Pradesh. There is your ‘more proof’ on why the AAP is brave and the BJP is with a yellow streak! A C-voter ABP poll survey says the BJP will with 40 percent vote share get around 215 seats in UP. The Samajwadi Party will garner over 100. The reading between the lines is making the BJP nervous.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been talking of over 300 seats for the BJP in 2022 while the ABP C-Voter survey scales the estimation down. Who to believe, and who not to? Could it be that the AAP has insider information that allows it to get away with blaming the farmers of neighbouring states for the poor air quality in Delhi! And has the BJP got a whiff of things to come?

The Supreme Court the other day was fuming. The 3-judge bench of CJI NV Ramanna wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. It forced the Delhi Government to admit to the “reality” and threatened to “audit” the advertisement spending of the Kejriwal Government. And if anything can give Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal jitters it is the threat to audit his government’s advertising spend.

So, the Supreme Court was “forced to set the agenda” for everyone – flay the Delhi Government for “passing the buck” and pull up the Centre for not proposing “drastic measures.” Here’s another instance of the Modi Government displaying rank cowardice: Why is the Modi Government afraid to take “drastic measures”? The bench headed by CJI Ramanna separated the cheeky from the coward.

The story is that while the Delhi Government and the Modi Government trade charges, it’s the Delhi denizen who is breathing poison day in and day out. Mumbai’s millions are so much luckier. There is nobody in Mumbai’s outskirts who is burning stubble and dead fish aren’t washing ashore, not yet.

The CJI-led bench gave both the Centre and the state governments of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh 24 hours to meet and list urgent steps to be put in place to bring down pollution levels. The bench listed out areas of concern: Work from home for all offices in Delhi and dissuading farmers from burning stubble for two weeks in Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

Delhi’s air quality index continues to be in the “very poor” category and unless “traffic, construction activities and power plants” are not controlled it will remain in the red.

The tussle between the BJP Centre and the AAP Delhi is holding Delhi to ransom. Lots of people have fled Delhi in Covid’s wake, but while there was acute shortages of oxygen, there was plenty of poor quality air. The tragedy is that pollution and politics go together. (IPA Service)