In a rare moment of consensus during the Winter Session, the Parliament has agreed to debate the worsening air pollution crisis. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi urged the House to hold a solution-oriented discussion, stating, 'We should try and not make it a discussion where we are abusing you and you are abusing us.' Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju confirmed the government is 'ready to discuss' the issue. Meanwhile, Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh told the Rajya Sabha that global air quality rankings like IQAir and WHO datasets are 'unofficial' and 'advisory', asserting India's own standards.
00:00Let's shift the focus on pollution and it's not just the national capital that suffers from polluted air
00:07where the AQI index very often touches severe and very very severe.
00:12Finally though, the parliament has decided after days of heated debates on electoral reforms,
00:20right before that, even one day matram, they have finally, the parliament has finally decided to debate pollution.
00:27It's not something that just impacts Delhi, but the rest of the country.
00:32An exchange between Rahul Gandhi and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiran Rajiju resulted in opening the door to this very, very crucial debate.
00:43Most of our cities, major cities, are living under a blanket of poisonous air.
00:50You know, this is not an ideological issue.
00:52This is, everybody in this house would agree that air pollution, the damage it is doing to our people,
01:00is something that we would like to cooperate on.
01:04I think the government should have a discussion in parliament.
01:07We should all have a discussion in parliament.
01:09And we should try, we should try and not make it a discussion where we are abusing you and you are abusing us.
01:20I think we should make it a discussion where we are participating,
01:25we are showing the country that on this fundamental issue there is agreement
01:29and the best minds are going to be put into place to solve this issue.
01:34Government from the day one had made our position very clear that on all important matters,
01:40government is ready to discuss and also to find out a solution,
01:45taking along the suggestions from all the members,
01:48including the principal opposition party led by Rahul Gandhi.
01:52Government, government is always prepared to have discussion under any rule,
01:59but only what the point I want to make is since the matter was brought in the BAC,
02:04we will come back and let us see how we can structure the discussion into,
02:09and then we are ready to take up this matter.
02:13While one is very, very glad that the parliament has decided to pick up pollution to debate,
02:18finally, after days of debating other issues,
02:21some would suggest not as important and pressing and urgent
02:25as discussing the rising levels of pollution in our cities.
02:30But there is a certain amount of delusion that also continues to be displayed by the government
02:34where most global rankings where AQI is concerned put Indian cities like Delhi as the worst.
02:42India has now decided that they don't believe in those rankings,
02:45they have come up with their own markers.
02:47And that, in fact, has caused quite a bit of a controversy.
02:52India is sticking to its own rule book.
02:54The government has called global pollution rankings unofficial and set its own air norms.
03:01The government told parliament today that the international air quality rankings
03:04from groups like IQ Air and even data sets linked to the WHO
03:10are unofficial and not issued by any recognised authorities.
03:15Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha on India's position in global indices,
03:20Minister of State for Environment, Kirti Vardhan Singh, said,
03:24the WHO's air quality guidelines are advisory, not binding rules,
03:28claiming that they are meant to help countries craft their own standards.
03:32He went on to mention India's own pollution ranking,
03:35including the annual Swatch Vayu Survection,
03:38which ranks 130th Indian cities and national ambient air quality standards for 12 pollutants.
03:46Many seem to suggest that this is a tad bit delusional
03:50and one should actually look and reflect at the world rankings.
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