Smog season takes a back seat to politics in Punjab

While BJP goes on the offensive, AAP argues that it is trying to pin Delhi’s pollution woes on Punjab. 

With less than a year to go before Punjab elects its next government, pollution is once again featuring in political exchanges between the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Despite the annual controversy over stubble burning and its contribution to deteriorating air quality across northern India, the issue has not acquired the prominence of unemployment, drugs, law and order, agricultural distress and the state’s financial position in the emerging electoral discourse.

The latest exchange between Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal has brought the subject back into focus. Sirsa has accused Kejriwal of attempting to malign Delhi over its pollution levels while questioning the Punjab government’s failure to control farm fires. He has also criticised the Bhagwant Mann government for its handling of stubble burning, an issue that has repeatedly triggered political confrontations between the governments in Delhi and Punjab.

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The AAP has countered the allegations, arguing that the BJP is attempting to hold Punjab’s farmers responsible for Delhi’s pollution while ignoring other sources of emissions in the national capital.

The exchange reflects a recurring political pattern. During the period when AAP governed Delhi but was in Opposition in Punjab, Kejriwal frequently raised stubble burning as a contributor to the capital’s winter pollution. Since the party came to power in Punjab in 2022, its emphasis has shifted towards the need for financial assistance to farmers, access to machinery and alternatives to burning crop residue.