As Piyush Goyal says ‘don’t blame Punjab for Delhi pollution’, is BJP planning to pivot?

Delhi’s Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa agreed with Goyal’s remarks. “Delhi’s own pollution is so high that pollutants from Punjab and Haryana only add to it. Their contribution is not very high. I agree with what Piyush Goyal ji has said.”

Asked about the AAP government in Punjab and whether he sees any political conflict related to stubble burning this time, Sirsa said, “We have to look at AAP and Bhagwant Mann as two separate entities, even though the party is the same. Mann ji is a Punjabi. He is the Chief Minister and I am sure he will work hard to control stubble burning. He is worried about the people of Punjab. As for the AAP, it doesn’t care about the people at all. We will talk with Bhagwant Mann when the need is there and I’m sure he will cooperate.”

However, Piyush Goyal’s remarks are markedly different from what his party colleagues in Delhi have said in the past when pollution levels in Delhi have shot up.

Last November, with the national capital facing the worst pollution levels in five years and educational institutions closed, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva criticised then CM Atishi for defending “her party’s Punjab government” and alleged she had falsely accused the BJP-led Centre. “The Delhi CM should have at least checked official IARI data on stubble burning which clearly shows that as of date, Punjab is the biggest offender on stubble burning… as the Punjab government has not provided machinery or equipment to farmers…,” Sachdeva said.

The year before too, the Delhi BJP had targeted the Punjab government and stubble burning in the state for Delhi’s pollution woes. “While incidents of stubble burning have reduced by 90% in Haryana, due to the negligence of the Punjab government, it is increasing in Punjab,” said Delhi BJP leader Dr Anil Gupta.

In Punjab BJP, whose leaders have always refrained from blaming the state for pollution in Delhi, there is a perception that Goyal’s statement is a calculated move to reduce the pressure on the party because of its strained relationship with a large section of farmers who have been demonstrating on the Punjab-Haryana border since February 2024. Their primary demand is a legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all crops. Before that, the farmers had protested on the Delhi border from November 2020 to December 2021 to demand the repeal of three farm laws, which the government subsequently agreed to, and a legal guarantee of MSP.

Farmer leader Satnam Singh Sahni, the general secretary of the Bharti Kisan Union (Doaba), said Goyal’s statements provide Punjab with a “fresh argument in an ongoing battle that has seen the state repeatedly blamed for a larger, multifaceted pollution crisis”.

Sahni claimed “the logistics of how the smoke from stubble burning could travel such a long distance and contribute significantly to Delhi’s pollution are questionable”.

A senior officer from the Punjab Pollution Control Board said Goyal’s “intervention casts doubt on the simplistic narrative and invites a broader discussion on the true causes of Delhi’s pollution, which goes far beyond Punjab’s agricultural practices”.

— With inputs from Mallica Joshi in Delhi