Airing Differences? Reading the Political Narrative on Air Quality Management in India

Effectively, the Delhi 22, 20191 and in the Rajya Sabha on November 21, 2019.2 government’s plan and subsequent statements by the Appendix 1 lists the names of the parliamentarians Chief Minister pinpointed the burning of agricultural who delivered speeches, their party affiliations and the crop residue as the principal reason for Delhi’s poor air duration of their speeches. [...] Of the we closely examine the discussions that took place 72 MPs across the two Houses, 25 belonged to the ruling in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on the air pollution National Democratic Alliance at the time, with 18 from crisis in India in November 2019. [...] India? What did they frame as the technical and ethical aspects of the problem, and what did they highlight as To justify their focus on episodic pollution in the NCR, its regional and temporal characteristics? We address MPs pointed to various factors: the centrality and these questions by exploring three recurring themes in political significance of the capital city, the visibility of the parlia. [...] The absolute solidarity that MPs expressed The discussions in Parliament seemed reflective of the with Indian farmers was in sharp contrast to the larger discourse on the air pollution crisis in the country. [...] Similarly, the this source is the most salient manifestation of the consensus on the health impacts of air pollution – and crisis: air quality levels are severe enough to be seen and the use of international research in providing evidence smelt, images of fields set on fire abound in the media, for these health linkages – differed markedly from the and the correlation between the increase in farm.