Delhi air pollution: AAP slams Delhi govt for alleged air quality data ‘manipulation’

People walk near India Gate, shrouded in thick smog during early morning hours after Deepavali night in New Delhi on November 09, 2026. | Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday (November 9, 2026) morning attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Delhi over alleged air quality data “manipulation” by shutting down of air quality monitoring stations.

“The government which shuts down air quality monitoring stations on the night of Diwali, the government that does data fraud, how will you trust such a government?” asked AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj in a video posted on X. 

As Delhiites burst firecrackers well past the 10 p.m. deadline set by the Supreme Court for Deepavali night, PM2.5 levels in parts of the city soared to 66 times the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended 24-hour guideline, before gradually declining in the early hours of Monday (November 9, 2026), according to official data.

However, at the peak of pollution following the bursting of firecrackers on Sunday (November 8) night, data from several monitoring stations operated by the Delhi Government’s Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) were unavailable for hours. This raises the possibility that the actual spike in pollution could have been higher.

“The government is doing the fraud openly. We had written to the CAQM and CPCB (about the data manipulation). But everyone is silent. This is because everyone is part of this fraud,” Mr. Bharadwaj said. 

Last week, the AAP had accused the BJP government of “manipulating” AQI data by spraying water on monitoring stations, and alleged that“fudging” AQI data was not just corruption but life-threatening. The party also wrote to CAQM and CPCB last week, alleging that the Delhi government was manipulating air quality data in the national capital.

Published - November 09, 2026 10:30 am IST