No, we don't breathe like this only

Last week, minister of state for environment Kirti Vardhan Singh, responding to a question in Rajya Sabha on India's far-from-viksit position in global air quality standards rankings, pointed out that there is no official countrywise pollution ranking. He also pointed out that WHO guidelines are not mandatory. They are meant to help countries set their own standards, factoring in geography, environmental conditions, background levels and national circumstances. Singh is right on both counts. But beyond data and its discontents lies the actual act of breathing. Delhi's air, for instance, acquired a texture - thick, abrasive, unforgiving - this week. This was quantitatively attested by AQI touching 498, deep in 'severe' category.

Earlier this month, Singh's boss, environment minister Bhupender Yadav, asked all state/UT authorities to expedite the on-ground implementation of all decisions taken in previous five meetings to improve air quality in Delhi-NCR. This is far more reassuring than policy hair-splitting. After all, rejecting global norms/suggestions to clean up air, while failing to enforce even one's own standards, is not sovereignty but abdication dressed up as relativism.

India's air quality standards remain far weaker than WHO recommendations. They haven't been revised since 2009. A review announced in 2022 is pending. One way of conducting disaster management is to write off any disaster. To make that legible, parameters that define a disaster can be changed, thresholds softened, data doubted. To normalise an environmental crisis, after all, has been national strategy for decades, which has brought matters to such a pass. Stepping outdoors and saying, 'Hey presto!,' however, is significantly more tricky.