For the leadership of any city to be oblivious to the worst perils of that city is bad news for its denizens, but for it to be irresponsible and retrograde is beyond unacceptable.Air pollution is India’s silent, continuing pandemic in slow motion, killing more people here annually than COVID-19 has killed in total since its very first victim, and triggering disease and disability in millions more. Nearly 99% of India breathes air that has particulate matter higher than the World Health Organisation’s annual average recommended limits of PM2.5 of five micrograms per cubic metre. Much of the health harm is irreversible.Air quality is the poorest in north India’s Indo-Gangetic plain, where nearly 40% of its population lives and breathes. And Delhi is the ground zero of the worst, most toxic air quality, whose residents lose up to 8.2 years of their life by just breathing this air, according to the 2025 report of the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute.Yet, instead of doubling down to reduce emissions and improve pollution – and thus the poison that the average Delhi and NCR resident inhales – Delhi’s government under its new chief minister asked the Supreme Court to allow more emissions by petitioning to lift the ban on ‘green’ firecrackers last week, a misnomer and oxymoron par excellence.If there was anything to prove the abdication of responsibility and failure of governance before even completing 12 months in power, it is this. And today, with the Supreme Court allowing bursting the mis-labelled “green”washed crackers between October 18 and 21, the last hope of north India’s already gasping public stands shattered.Wind speeds have already slowed, which means the smoke from the crackers will remain in the air for days afterwards (and in the lungs of those who breathe the post-Diwali air for the rest of their lives). The Union government’s Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to combat air pollution has already kicked in via an October 14 order. Applying the simplest of logic, if GRAP’s main purpose is to bring pollution levels down, then allowing firecrackers during GRAP-1 should automatically not be allowed. So, now it is doubly clear that no one is thinking logically.This leaky bucket is never going to be plugged – one arm of government is encouraging higher emissions while another arm is trying fruitlessly to control it. A classic case of the failure of governance by a self-proclaimed “double-engine” government which has misfiring engines.Every year since first writing about air pollution’s health harm over ten years ago, I have learnt more horrifying facts and worked with experts to debunk myth after myth (such as inhaling polluted air increases our immunity and that smog towers can clean outdoor air – both false). Thanks to the work of several researchers, scientists and experts and its amplification by clean air advocates, non-profits and the media, the awareness around the human cost of air pollution – the diseases, disability and deaths it triggers – has grown significantlyMany more are now aware that air pollution doesn’t just affect the lungs, but harms every organ in the human body, triggering every sort of cancer; that it especially affects the heart, leading to strokes and cardiac arrests from the direct causal effect of increased blood pressure; that it is responsible for problems from obesity to cognitive harm, arthritis to atherosclerosis, depression to dementia – an endless list that is backed by 72,000 scientific papers linking air pollution to health harm.Even schoolchildren know about the oxidative stress and inflammation these tiny, nearly invisible particles – PM10 and PM2.5 (matter smaller than ten microns and 2.5 microns, commonly labelled dust and smoke) – cause once inhaled. But Delhi’s chief minister seems to have missed these facts. Now shockingly, so has our last saviour, the Supreme Court.‘Green’ firecrackers misnomer, result of flawed judgmentThe flip-flop on a complete ban on all fireworks has been continuing since 2016, even as state governments, high courts, activists, manufacturers and trade lobbies entangle in conflicting interests.It began with a flawed judgment – the Supreme Court should never have allowed the label of ‘green’ firecrackers to begin with.There is nothing green about “green” firecrackers except for its greenwash. Nothing that combusts, that is, burns – like crackers do – can be called green. “Green” crackers just have slightly lower emissions than regular non-green crackers. By definition, these should produce at least 30% less toxic particulate matter and gases (sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, etc.) than conventional firecrackers, and shouldn’t contain barium salts, aluminium, strontium, lithium, arsenic, antimony, lead and some other banned substances.However, it is impossible for end-use consumers to easily check if those so labeled are indeed authentically lower-emission “green” crackers. All that the “green” label has done is allow manufacturers, traders, certifying agencies, sellers and buyers to misuse the 2018 Supreme Court judgment, to the point that even the CBI has been invoked.Because there is no way for a buyer to know if a firecracker is truly low-emission/green, unless the state can give a surety that all green-labelled firecrackers are duly (and authentically) certified, can’t be duplicated and are sold only under strict supervision, every single firecracker that emits or goes up in flames must be banned.But the more critical argument remains: why even petition the courts to ask to allow lower-emitting (green) crackers, which at up to 70% the strength of regular crackers would still lead to a big increase in emissions compared to the current full ban (which is zero or close to zero emissions) and leads to much better enforcement? This is as good as asking to be allowed to increase pollution much more than the ZERO-emission of a complete ban.By doing so, the Delhi chief minister has shown complete disregard for the health of her own city’s residents – especially its oldest and youngest, who are most affected by toxic air.Crackers never part of Hindu Diwali tradition, Chinese import, Mughal legacyNow, if we were to rewind even further and question whether firecrackers were ever even an integral part of the Hindu tradition at Diwali, as some people currently claim in order to defend, nay, reinforce the imprudent (bordering on imbecile) petition, we will find that the very basis of this premise is false.All it takes is a simple Google search or even just an AI prompt – try something neutral like “Did the Ramayana come first or firecrackers?” – and you’ll find that firecrackers were never traditionally an essential component of Diwali, that none of the Hindu sacred and ancient texts like Valmiki’s Ramayana or the Puranas mention them.Multiple credible websites state clearly that firecrackers were a Chinese import and Mughal legacy that turned up as recently as 600 years ago.With the Supreme Court relenting and allowing crackers around Diwali (because not just green crackers will be lit – higher-emitting crackers will ride on the back of this permission via fake QR codes and other enforcement challenges), this means an increase of emissions from this most unproductive of sources – air quality is set to plummet even more than initially expected.This is even without accounting for the effect of crop residue burning, which has been delayed this year by the floods in Punjab and continuing rains from a monsoon that has been slow to recede. Crop residue is still wet and much of the standing crop has been destroyed.Once farmers start burning their fields, PM2.5 levels will shoot up. Smoke from farm fires can contribute to almost 30% of the total pollution, as we have seen in earlier years. During the worst smog, researchers have found that particulate pollution from agricultural fires accounted for 32% of the daily deaths from air pollution in the capital and 53% in Kanpur.Double-engine govt’s focus more on optics vs emission reductionAfter the failure of the Aam Aadmi Party to reduce emissions and lower pollution in any significant way for the aam aadmi, some of us were genuinely hopeful that in the new dispensation, with the Bharatiya Janata Party now in power at the state as well as the Union government – the “double engine” would finally wipe out conflicts and confusion and a more focussed approach to reducing emissions would emerge.But by focussing less on reduction of emissions and more on optics like smog towers, mist sprays and cloud seeding, the BJP has dashed those hopes and the bharatiya janata will likely bear the brunt of it in the upcoming winter.Reduction in actual emissions has taken a backseat with the recent dilution (strategically announced in the clean month of July) in India’s sulphur dioxide emission norms for coal-based thermal power plants, sparking debate over the future of clean air regulation, compliance enforcement and the country’s environmental commitments.Originally notified in 2015, India’s SO2 emission standards were among the most ambitious in the developing world. They mandated the installation of flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) systems across all coal-fired power plants to reduce SO2, which is one of the key contributors to acid rain and particulate matter pollution, and captures these emissions at source, the most efficient way of controlling emissions.After nearly a decade of extensions, non-compliance and industry resistance, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change was pressured to roll back a significant portion of these requirements. The July 2025 amendment effectively exempts the majority of India’s thermal power capacity from FGD compliance, opting instead for a diluted, category-based regime.Significantly, this also highlights the conflict between two government departments – the power ministry and the environment ministry – with the latter trying to keep its mandate of “prevention and control of pollution” and the former pushing for higher profits for thermal power plants under its administration by exempting the installation of FGDs that cost (individual) money, but are essential for (collective) human health.As usual, profits (booked privately), win – while health harm, (felt collectively), loses.Instead of reducing emissions at source by capturing them with FGDs or completely banning just-for-entertainment crackers which serve no constructive purpose (unlike mobility or heating) this government seems to be choosing optics over long-term strategic and systemic change; there is talk of smog towers, mist sprays, cloud seeding – none of which reduce emissions.Experts say such solutions are attractive to governments for multiple reasons. They are visible – a physical manifestation of the government’s promise to ‘do something’ in a way few air quality interventions are. Second, they don’t impose costs on polluters and therefore don’t antagonise any interest groups. Third, they entice by promising a technological path to clean air without anybody having to change their polluting behaviours. And fourth, they seem plausible as an intervention to policymakers and the public alike – e.g. smog towers as giant vacuum cleaners sucking in dirty air and releasing clean air.However, as the development economist Dean Spears argued in his 2019 book Air, such instances of “fake policymaking could crowd out demand for the genuine article.” Such measures sow confusion among the people on what the most effective solutions to improving air quality could be, instead of keeping the public demand focused firmly on long-term mitigation efforts.In a post-truth world where fiction often masquerades as fact and fake news rules the day, it is no surprise that the myth that outdoor smog towers can filter and clean polluted air refuses to die. Scientists and researchers have been speaking out against this pseudoscience for years. Activists have protested against wasting money on these ineffective monstrosities. Journalists have been reporting on their inefficiencies. Even government ministers have admitted in written replies to parliament that smog towers are ineffectual.Yet, the newly elected Delhi government has been planning to set up more such useless carbuncles outdoors, which are likely to increase, not reduce pollution by adding thousands more physical filters into an already overflowing landfill.It had even considered asking for Rs 1,000 crore in funding from the Union government to deploy new technology and implement measures aimed at reducing the Air Quality Index of the national capital, minister Parvesh Sahib Singh had said in June while inspecting Nehru Park along with Delhi environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, including a proposed initiative to install air purifiers in the area, according to news reports.The project was to be funded through corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnerships with private firms, ensuring that there is no direct financial burden on the government.Whether financed by tax money or CSR funds, the point remains that smog towers are useless, inefficient and thus, a complete waste of money, private or public.The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi’s Centre of Excellence for Research on Clean Air, reputed think-tanks such as the Centre for Policy Research, the Council on Energy, Environment and Water and UrbanEmissions.info, an 18-year old air pollution information, research and analysis repository, have published research papers, reports and analyses proving time and again that outdoor air purifiers are incapable of cleaning the air.UE’s Sarath Guttikunda and Puja Jawahar’s scientific analysis on the inefficiency of smog towers, published in the August 2020 edition of the scientific journal Atmosphere uses physics, chemistry and mathematics to clearly prove that when it comes to managing outdoor air pollutants, outdoor smog towers just don’t work.One analysis carried out by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water calculated that at its air pollution levels, Delhi would need at least 2.5 million such smog towers to clean its air.Already, the fragrance of the star-shaped orange and white harsringar flower is being replaced by the acrid smell of pollution. Our government and courts have ensured this will worsen faster than expected. Jyoti Pande Lavakare is the author of the science-based grief memoir Breathing Here is Injurious to Your Health: The Human Cost of Air Pollution and a winter pollution refugee. The author’s Instagram handle is @jyotipandelavakare.