Hundreds of people gathered at the India Gate in New Delhi on Sunday to protest air pollution, brandishing slogans such as, “I Miss Breathing.”
Police detained several of the protesters for assembling without permission, prompting an angry response from the opposition Congress party.
Air quality in New Delhi has been periodically rated as “very poor” or “hazardous” this fall, with a thick blanket of smog covering the city. Seasonal air currents, smoke from fires set to clear farmland, and massive fireworks from the Diwali holiday have all been cited as contributing factors to the lingering air pollution.
New Delhi’s air quality was rated “very poor” over the weekend, with an average Air Quality Index (AQI) of 346 on Monday morning, although several monitoring stations posted much worse readings.
On the scale employed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), AQI levels of 301 or higher are considered “hazardous.” The highest “healthy” AQI reading is 100. The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) classified New Delhi’s air quality as “severe.”
“Worsening air quality in the capital has sparked outrage from residents suffering from headaches and persistent coughs. Frustration is mounting toward politicians accused of trading blame instead of enforcing policies to combat what has become an annual health emergency,” the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Many of the protesters who gathered at the India Gate on Sunday were mothers with their children in tow. The mothers waved medications that have been prescribed for their children to help them deal with the “air emergency” as they demanded “urgent, accountable, and transparent” government action.
The protesters posted angry messages and video to social media when police began making arrests. Police officials said the protesters ignored several requests to relocate to the designated area for public protests in New Delhi. The event at India Gate was blocking an important roadway. The police said only protesters who insisted on blocking the road were taken into custody.
“It is unfortunate that about a hundred citizens were detained. Ironically, many woman police personnel identified with the protesters as they, too, struggle to breathe the same toxic air. However, we saw many people without masks. That’s the real tragedy,” said environmental activist Bhavreen Khandari, who attended the Sunday demonstration.
“So many parents are here because their children are suffering. Every third child already has damaged lungs. They will live nearly 10 years less than those growing up in cleaner air,” Khandari said.
The opposition Congress party on Monday criticized the detention of protesters, describing them as citizen activists doing their best to fulfill a “duty” the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP party has neglected.
“The citizens of Delhi who are protesting for better air quality are only wanting to carry out their own Kartavya under Article 51-A (g) of the Constitution of India which mandates them ‘to protect and improve the natural environment,’” said Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh.
Kartavya means “obligation” or “duty.” The article of the Indian constitution referenced by Ramesh states that every Indian citizen has a duty to “protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures.”
“So why are they being prevented by the Delhi Police to register their desperate concern at the atrocious air quality where they live and work?” Ramesh asked. “When the government is failing miserably in its Kartavya, the people have to fulfil theirs.”
Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi said the Modi administration should attend to the air quality emergency in New Delhi “right now” instead of “attacking citizens asking for clean air.”
“The right to clean air is a basic human right. The right to peaceful protest is guaranteed by our Constitution. Why are citizens who have been peacefully demanding clean air being treated like criminals?” he said.
“Air pollution is affecting crores (thousands) of Indians, harming our children, and the future of our country. But the government which came to power through vote theft simply does not care, nor is it even attempting to solve this crisis,” he charged.
Some protesters accused the Modi government of manipulating data to conceal the severity of the air quality crisis, pointing to videos that showed water being sprayed near AQI monitoring stations.
Prime Minister Modi’s attention on Monday morning was largely occupied by a massive explosion near a metro station that might have been a car bomb attack. At least eight people were killed in the blast. Modi met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah to review the progress of an investigation by Delhi police.
Modi was among the many world leaders who chose not to attend the COP30 climate conference in Brazil this week. Although Modi insisted his government remains committed to the climate agenda, activists were furious at him, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, and President Donald Trump for skipping the conference, since the climate movement regards them as the world’s worst emitters of greenhouse gases.
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