The air is free but why is it such a privilege to breathe?’ read one of the several placards at a protest in New Delhi last week, as residents vented anger over the capital’s worsening air.

For years, Delhi’s toxic smog has been a familiar dark cloud — but reports indicating that the government was manipulating data to hide the true extent of the crisis, combined with a recent photo showing two air purifiers flanking the prime minister, seem to have snapped public patience.

That image captured the deep divide between those who could afford 'Made in China' air purifiers and sealed offices, and the millions who cannot. Reports that water sprinklers were being used around air quality monitors to suppress readings — and that several stations had been shut down altogether — brought citizens to the streets.

The government forced the organisers to call off the protest at the last minute. Those who turned up at India Gate were taken into custody and left 50 km away at the Haryana border.

Delhi Aam Aadmi Party president Saurabh Bharadwaj told reporters: “As soon as pollution increases, the government shuts down AQI monitoring stations. Wherever AQI is found to be high, spraying of water is being done… the fraud is happening openly... the intention is not to reduce pollution but to show lower figures”.

On 10 November, the AQI was in the ‘very poor’ category in 26 of the 38 monitoring stations in the national capital. Bawana reported an AQI at 366, Jahangirpuri 348, Chandni Chowk 410, Burari 430 — and at Anand Vihar, despite three trucks spraying jets of water outside the monitoring system set up by the Central Pollution Control Board, the AQI read 400.

The same day, the US embassy in the green belt of Chanakyapuri showed an AQI of 643 with PM 10........

© National Herald