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Fresh political row erupts in Delhi over cloud seeding, pollution
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav, and Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta to take steps to clean the “filthy smog” the residents are breathing, prompting a quick response from the BJP.
The deteriorating air quality in the Capital has led to a political slugfest between the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday referred to a report from the Union environment ministry from December last year, where three specialised agencies — the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in NCT, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), and the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) — had advised against winter cloud seeding to improve air quality in Delhi.
He also referred to an IIT Delhi report from October 31, which said cloud seeding was not feasible during Delhi’s winter months.
Responding to the claim and defending the cloud seeding experiment in the city, Delhi environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa highlighted that the BJP’s measures to tackle air pollution had made 2025 so far the cleanest in the last eight years (barring 2020).
“Firstly, as already stated by the CAQM, this year has recorded the lowest AQI and the highest number of clean-air days. Secondly, this remarkable feat was achieved despite allowing Deepawali celebrations and allowing the middle class more time to ply their vehicles,” Sirsa said in his post on X, alleging that both the AAP and Congress were working in connivance.
“Anyone with even a modicum understanding of scientific method knows that the only way to resolve an opinion is to conduct experiments, especially when those experiments are conducted by an organisation as reputed as IIT Kanpur and are as cost-efficient as the present trials,” Sirsa added, stating that over four sorties have been conducted at a cost of less than ₹1 crore (with a total agreement value of about ₹3.4 crore covering several more sorties).
Further, Sirsa said the government had learned that even when it does not rain, cloud seeding results in improving the air quality index (AQI). “We have also found that trace rains occur even when the humidity is far less than initially anticipated. Furthermore, we have gained a deeper understanding of how inversion works and what factors are necessary for inducing seeding.”
Meanwhile, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav, and Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta to take steps to clean the “filthy smog” the residents are breathing.
“It’s really about time all of us get together regardless of our political compulsions and do something about it. The central and state governments need to act immediately, we will all support and cooperate with whatever actions they choose to take to mitigate this awful situation,” she wrote in a post on X on Sunday.
“Those who suffer from respiratory issues, children who commute to school every day and senior citizens especially, need urgent intervention to clear the filthy smog we are all breathing,” she added.
Hitting back, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said that it was “surprising” that the Congress leader has spoken about Delhi pollution after almost two decades. “Delhiites very well remember that Delhi was first turned into a gas chamber during the Congress government around 2009 and it was Congress of Punjab till 2022 whose callousness led to mass crop residue burning, further adding to Delhiites woes,” he said in a press conference.
At a press conference, Delhi AAP chief Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that the Delhi government was manipulating the air quality index (AQI) data. “The sham of continuously reducing pollution figures is ongoing, the BJP government’s lies are right in front of you. They are playing with the lives of your children.”
“AQI data displayed on mobile apps is actually taken from the government monitoring system, and around that very system, water is being continuously sprayed to make the figures look better. Meanwhile, on the other hand, the reality emerging from the independent American Embassy’s Pollution Monitoring System is something else entirely — the poison in the air is just as much as before, the only difference is in the numbers,” he said.
