“Just when the Narendra Modi government was celebrating its first year in office on a note of simulated well being, Gardiner Harris, Bureau Chief of New York Times in New Delhi, spoilt the party by making a gloomy announcement: New Delhi, the capital of Modi’s dream nation was unlivable and that Harris was leaving, with his wife and children to the cleaner air of Washington. We poor natives have been screaming the same alarm from rooftops without any apparent effect. But now that the New York Times has squealed, the Times of India reproduced the piece on page one. This was admission by India’s most powerful newspaper that its excellent campaign on pollution was not as effective and that it gained geometrically by leaning on the New York Times story….”
Naqvi highlights the double standard among Indian elites and leadership in acknowledging the severity of Delhi’s air quality problem. “Only when an expat reporter focuses on Delhi’s impending catastrophe does the establishment wake up. That is when even The Times of India doffs its hat and places Gardiner Harris piece above the fold on its page one. AAP government is struggling to find its feet in Delhi. Instead of helping it attend to Delhi’s problems, every vested interest, each political party is out to waylay it. Modi needs to give the Delhi government a helping hand to save India’s capital city.
The Citizen.in. Read it on delhiair.org.
New York Times Exposé of Delhi Pollution Spoils Modi’s Anniversary
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