While north India’s pollution issue has become an annual feature, last-minute crisis management remains the political response of choice. It could serve as a beginning towards a green politics which Indian parties have played with in fits and starts, but which has not been institutionalised. Smog, which respects no borders and whose effects will be cumulatively felt in the years ahead by everyone who has lived in its shadow, is an issue emotive enough to serve as the trigger for the long-awaited green politics. While the routine requests not to politicise the issue are being issued, parties should rather be urged to sharply politicise the issue. Not by blaming each other, but by making it a central feature of their politics in routinely affected areas.

Source: Indian Express November 09, 2017 19:41 UTC