NEW DELHI — The Congress on Monday, November 9, lashed out at the Narendra Modi government for being in “denial” on the impact of air pollution on mortality in India, citing a FICCI-EY report which, the party said, states categorically that around 2 million deaths — about 22 per cent of all deaths in the country in 2023 — were attributable to air pollution.

Source: PTI via The Hindu

Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh, a former Union Environment Minister, said on X that the government has long rejected studies on pollution-linked mortality, in Parliament and outside, on the grounds that they are not India-specific and that the impacts are not direct and uniquely attributable.

Source: ANI via Daily Prabhat

“Ease of doing business is fine but ease of breathing is even more fundamental,” Ramesh said, calling the report “yet another wakeup call for the somnolent Modi Government”. He argued that the government surely cannot dismiss this analysis from FICCI, the country’s leading apex industry body, and said exposure to fine particulate matter, particularly PM2.5, has emerged as a major public health threat across several parts of the country.

What the Congress is demanding

Ramesh set out a three-step reform agenda drawn from the report: tighten the existing PM2.5 and ozone standards; revamp the National Clean Air Programme so that it focuses on PM2.5 and ozone; and bring in a new Clean Air Act, focused on public health, to replace the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. He said the FICCI-EY report presents a clearly phased ten-year roadmap for national action, and that its recommendations can no longer be allowed to remain on paper.

The attack landed on a morning when Delhi and other northern cities were again struggling with post-Diwali smog, keeping air quality at the centre of national politics. In the reports carried by PTI and ANI on Monday, no response from the government to Ramesh’s post had been reported at the time of publication.