AAP Trying To "Defame Diwali": Delhi Minister Amid Toxic Politics Over Pollution

Diwali and the traditional beginning of the smog season in Delhi has also marked the beginning of the expected big fight between the ruling BJP and the Opposition Aam Aadmi Party. The air quality dropping off charts overnight has provided AAP the opening it awaited and the party has accused the BJP government of failing to keep pollution under check. The subheads of this allegation includes fudging of actual pollution data, and  not stopping the sale of illegal crackers. 

The BJP has alleged that AAP's sole aim is to defame Diwali. 

In a no-holds barred attack on AAP, Delhi's Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said: "Their aim is to defame Diwali. Who are the religious people who are forcing them to make this statement? Why would any common man speak against any religion?"

He also took on Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, accusing it of being on the same side as AAP and being anti-Diwali. 

"Akhilesh-ji also has only one purpose to get votes, that is to get the Hindus out... What did he say? 'Christmas should be celebrated like Diwali'," he alleged.

Then acknowledging that Christmas has its own mood and should be celebrated, he said: "How can you say that Diwali be celebrated that way? How can you say that no lamps should be lit in Diwali? No worship should be done in Diwali? All kinds of Christian systems should be adopted?"

Thick, hazardous smog has blanketed New Delhi the morning after Diwali and the pollution level has gone up to "serious".

For AAP, this is a long awaited opportunity, especially when its failure to address smog and the pollution in Yamuna had been a big factor in its  crushing defeat earlier this year. 

Sirsa questioned how AAP could expect the BJP to solve the smog problem in a matter of months when it could not do so in a decade of its rule.  

"Those who have been running it (the government) for 10 years, if they are raising questions today, then they should be booked and put in jail. You have been running it for 10 years. You left the problem. We didn't bring it with us," he added. 

Rubbishing AAP's allegations, he said pollution data is in its place and what is really affecting AQI (Air Quality Index) is the move to sweep dust from the streets. Asked about AAP's questions on cloud seeding, he said there has to be cloud first. Only then it can be seeded, he added.