BJP leaders share Arvind Kejriwal's old videos, attack him over Delhi's air pollution

A day after Union environment minister Bhupendra Yadav blamed the Punjab AAP government for the rising level of air pollution in the national capital, the BJP leader on Thursday shared an old video of the Delhi chief minister on Twitter.

As citizens of Delhi continued to breathe in toxic air, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday intensified its attack the Arvind Kejriwal, whose Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is in power in Delhi and Punjab, over stubble burning - considered one of the reasons for the AQI.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal during a press conference, (PTI file)

A day after Union environment minister Bhupendra Yadav blamed the Punjab AAP government for the rising level of air pollution in the national capital, the BJP leader on Thursday shared an old video of the Delhi chief minister on Twitter and asked, “now who is stopping you from implementing these measures to solve the stubble problem of Punjab?”

In the video, Kejriwal can be seen saying the bio-composing solution developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute at Pusa and referred to as the “Pusa Decomposer” has proved to be a success in addressing the problem of stubble burning. He also urged other states like Punjab and Haryana to implement it and hoped that “this is the last year when we have to suffer from (air) pollution”.

BJP IT-cell head Amit Malviya also hit out at Kejriwal by sharing an old video of the Delhi chief minister on stubble burning.

“So there are numerous ways in which stubble can be used instead of burning them and causing pollution. Implementing these on a big scale will also generate a lot of employment. But all the states need to execute this and ensure no stubble is burnt,” Kejriwal is seen saying in the video.

Posting the video, Malviya tweeted, “Kejriwal had all the solutions to fight pollution when his party was not in power in Punjab. Why hasn’t he done even 1% of what he was preaching from the pulpit? Arvind Kejriwal is an unmitigated disaster, who has bought media silence on his failures with his outsized ad spends.”

In another tweet, the BJP leader said, “When will Mann give a timeline to Kejriwal? Farm fires in Punjab have shot up by 33%. Sangrur has seen 139% jump. Center’s 492 crore to Punjab remains unutilised, over 11,000 machines have gone missing. Haryana, at the same time, reduced fires by 33%. What is Kejriwal’s excuse?”

According to reports, the share of stubble burning in Delhi's PM2.5 pollution jumped to 38 per cent on Thursday, which, experts said was the reason behind the thick layer of pungent smog over the national capital.

On Wednesday, Kejriwal had blamed the central government for rising incidents of stubble burning in Punjab and said it should "resign" if it cannot control air pollution.

Delhi's air quality slipped back into the "severe" zone Thursday morning amid raging farm fires and stagnant conditions at night. The overall air quality index stood at 419 at 9am.

An AQI (air quality index) of above 400 is considered "severe" and can affect healthy people and seriously impact those with existing illnesses.