Why is Indian democracy unable to respond to the problem of pollution?

 

Reuters

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The people of Delhi once looked forward to winter. Not anymore. The season is now accompanied by some of the most severe pollution anywhere in the world. The past week saw the Air Quality Index in the capital hit “severe” levels, meaning even healthy people could face breathing problems and all physical activity was dissuaded.

 

In industrialised nations, this apocalyptic pollution would have seen the government face massive pressure and, hence, seen hectic activity to combat it. China’s capital Beijing, for example, was notorious for its polluted air. To combat it, the city launched a massive five-year action plan in 2013. By 2017, with China spending billions of dollars to clean up its capital, the United Nations Environment Program wrote, “cleaner air was visible”.

Inactive state

In sharp contrast, Indian democracy seems to have produced no such drastic action. This when, not only Delhi, but almost all of North India, is blanketed by killer smog for much of the winter, affecting hundreds of millions of people. The pollution comes like clockwork every winter, with the Indian state putting in little effort to fight it.

What explains this governance paralysis on something as critical as pollution?

First, let us be clear that Indian voters themselves are quite concerned about pollution. According to a Lokniti-CSDS survey published in December, 2019, 45% of Delhiities believe that pollution was the biggest problem facing the capital and 10% said it would be a factor when they vote.

Nevertheless, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party actually swept the elections just a few months later. The answer to this paradox lies in a couple of things. Principally was the fact that the Aam Aadmi Party was rated highly for bread-and-butter issues like lower electric and water bills. Elections in India are multi-issue and it is clear the Aam Aadmi Party’s populist measures earned it huge popularity.

Moreover, only 27% of Delhiities considered the Delhi government to be responsible for pollution, reflecting possibly the attenuated powers of Delhi as a Union territory, with the Union government having vast powers in the city in a way that is not possible in full states.

In effect, while pollution might be an issue, clearly it is being outweighed by other factors when the voter goes to vote in Delhi.

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