Promises versus Deeds

While reading the manifestos of two major parties, “Congress will Deliver” of the Indian National Congress (INC) and “Sankalp Patra” of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), I focused on my core interests: environment, climate change, rivers, and issues of jal–jungle–jameen (water, forests and land). In the BJP manifesto, I did not find a section on climate change, but was amazed to spot the word climate in the energy section. On page 22, it says, “India has become a global champion in addressing the issues of climate change through effective and feasible interventions.” However, according to the Global Climate Risk Index, 2019, published by Germanwatch, India is the 14th most vulnerable country to the impacts of climate change.

I was surprised to find a dedicated section on environment, climate change, climate resilience, and disaster management on pages 50–51 of the INC manifesto. It states, “It is a bitter truth that India’s environment has deteriorated. The 2018 Global Environmental Performance Index placed India at rank 177 out of 180 countries. The BJP Government has done virtually nothing in the last five years to arrest this decline.” It is another matter that even under the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) government, the record on environment was not outstanding, with India’s rank as 155 in 2014 on a similar list. But, a sharp drop of 20 positions in five years is shocking.