Most members of New Delhi’s power pack do not consider themselves ‘climate deniers’. But in media briefings about meetings held on the alarmingly high AQI levels in the nation’s capital, or forest fires in dry-as-a-bone hills of Uttarakhand, one notices a clear political and administrative denial of the severe crisis. Its impact on the health of citizens is usually explained as a seasonal flare-up of the flu or whatever, and quibbling over or denying access to actual data is almost a given.For Ram’s sake, the message as it emanates in pressers and later prime time discussions on Godi TV, seems to be use your common sense. Do not get carried away by the jargon of eternally dissatisfied academics and Jhola Walla activists. What has happened has happened due to forces beyond human control see? Let’s remember also that India is today one of the world’s fastest rising economies and is posting the world’s largest growth figures. How was that made possible? It was thanks to our sagacious leadership promoting extensive development. As roads are built, also bridges and flyovers, there is bound to be some change in the land ownership and work patterns. But see how many jobs this construction industry is creating. We are a vast country with patches that are underdeveloped, mostly ruled by incompetent opposition parties. They now need a faster paced change. There is no reason why triple engine driven Indian states should lose a lot of money in the short term for the sake of a few laggards and the long term future of all in an age when the world is in a churn. The glass see, is half full. Thank you, no more questions.Illustration: Pariplab ChakrabortyLater we hear the climate activists on TV and in the social media. They complain and argue how Delhi’s AQI this year was 300 times the permissible limits, how green crackers and anti-smog guns, frequent impositions of GRAP measures and tinkering with the AQI data in Delhi have all failed and made it a once green city into a hellhole where it is hazardous even to breathe. But next we hear that 80 demonstrators from among the activists from a recent Dharna have been arrested. Another young reporter who was doing something to report the local sand mafia or the water tanker mafia was found dead in a ditch. Meanwhile, people addicted to reels and quips by way of news on social media, get distracted easily. It’s a large country with plenty happening such as the new Bill announcing UGC guidelines for protection for the OBC students facing verbal and physical violence on campuses. This has resulted in unleashing old caste groupings and police-youth clashes all over. The climate activists cannot gauge nor quickly feed in the caste variables into their agendas. They get very angry at the climate deniers but who is paying them attention at this point?This is where writers are different from reporters. To them under the Kartavya Path lobby’s denial of the urgency of climate change, and mishandling of the new Bill, there are age-old repressed casteist feelings. The largely upper caste judiciary, police and bureaucracy all nurse these misgivings about OBC reservations. Since in more than one state the state police has been noticed showering flower petals on devotees bathing in the holy rivers, and the forces in uniform have been prostrating themselves before Sadhus in public, it stands to reason that deep down, there is a real fear about the upturning of the caste apple cart.In 2026, a writer meets both the pure ideologues and pure casteist sociopaths when discussing either caste or climate with the power pack. Mind you, this pack also has its share of space scientists, technocrats and bankers, all intelligent enough to realise that climate change is real. But they have convinced themselves market and tech can tackle it over time. In their minds wealth alone can sort out problems created by fast paced generation of wealth. Look at China, they say. Their initial progress created high degrees of pollution but today they have overcome that. They have fused all the dialects and compelled their people to use one uniform version of Mandarin. How? By tight unblinking state control. Also read: Supreme Court Stay on UGC Regulations Shows the Power of Brahmins’ WrathSo to them once the State wields the Lathi and right opportunities are created, ample wealth and investments will begin to flow in as promised. The caste system then will crumble and become meaningless after a few years. With the high special skill levels ‘these people’ have in the area of ‘service’, nurses, porters, cleaners and road workers will be in demand in every developed country. A writer’s mind senses somewhere even in street-level protests about UGC Bill, there was a certain indifference to issues like climate change. They may have sincere and very human concerns about their future as common citizens who lack all political or bureaucratic clout but why is the same anger not visible when homes are bulldozed to make way for roads or temple Parikrama paths and Yatras? One thing a writer knows, is that nobody wants to think of themselves as a bad guy. Not even Trump. All status quoits in India, very rich or just well-to-do (and mostly upper caste) consider themselves as logical, sensible guys (and ladies). Yet while fulminating against the new Bill they forget they nurse dreams for themselves and their offspring in which they study abroad in prestigious universities, and so are unlikely to be threatened by the UGC new guidelines. Their dreams may not be Adani or Ambani-sized, but climate hysteria or racism abroad does not haunt them much either.Also read: UGC’s Equity Regulations 2026: A Legal, Historical and Normative InquiryAmong them, those building their networks and family fortunes and little second homes in Goa or the hills stay in denial about climate destruction, casteist and communal segregation are causing in those small hamlets, and utter compliance to the ruling groups, is a thought they will not discuss. It’d be funny if it weren’t so sad, that while preparing the ground for their own migration abroad how many of the climate change deniers are flooding and manipulating our system with money to secure their own future in the developed world. And this is going to have a cost for the lives and livelihoods of millions of Indians. Looking at the smug smiles of the Davos-returned burping over the budget halwa, or having friendly fireside chats with Veeps on TV, a humble writer would like to reassure them that there is no longer even a need to lie if you are planning on guiding the eyeballs to yet another distracting Tamasha say yet another white European leader watching Ganga arti or a Tech Tsar kid meditating in a cave at Kedarnath. Mrinal Pande is a writer and veteran journalist.Saakhi is a Sunday column from Mrinal Pande, in which she writes of what she sees and also participates in. That has been her burden to bear ever since she embarked on a life as a journalist, writer, editor, author and as chairperson of Prasar Bharti. Her journey of being a witness-participant continues.