On the loose: Right to Breathe

The courts and governments will not succeed in killing the tax paying public’s aspirations; they will continue to want cars and houses. It’s the slow and very worthy march towards becoming what the SC so scathingly refers to as ‘the rich and affluent’, which is actually more like people working incredibly hard to improve their lives and along the way, spending a little something on personal comfort. However, as we’re learning, we cannot insulate and separate ourselves entirely from the cost of progress. No matter how successful or rarefied our private circles become, they provide no immunity from smoky air that knows no
privilege, incarcerating all our lungs equally.

For now, it’s the right thing to do — make it tougher and more expensive for people to drive cars that pollute more. The 2000 cc diesel vehicle ban is a beginning and it’ll be interesting to see how it works out. Will car dealerships open up right outside the NCR? Panipat and Agra are connected by super highways now and wily Delhiites won’t mind travelling 50 extra kilometres to register a car they want. These are stopgap, knee-jerk methods, acceptable in a dire situation. Rationing happened during the World War, and in a sense, we are at war. But for any real, sustainable change, eco-friendly practices will have to become a way of life, drilled into every citizen on a war footing with serious consequences for negligence.

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