This framing—taking a “hit”—is most odd. Isn’t it the Centre’s job to take care of citizens’ concerns, whether it means spending money or not? It’s the same issue with terming infrastructure a “gift” to the nation.
Make the elected leaders spend a night lying down on the divider under the open sky in this weather, without ACs without 50 car cavalcades.
Or on a treeless promenade.
They’ll know in a day what it feels like… if they survive.
Shortage of gas didn't stop it. India is cooking. Literally.
Delhi hit 50°C. Rajasthan touched 52°C. Odisha went to 53°C. Banda went beyond. Labourers collapsed on roads. Farmers fainted. Old people died in homes with no fans. Children sat in tin-roofed classrooms with wet cloth on their heads.
Drink more water. Add ORS if you can afford. That was it. Oh, and one cooling center in Delhi with staff to wipe off your sweat with towels. That was the full might of the government machinery, its think tank and its policy makers.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister was on his 70-something foreign trip. Playing candy crush. And gifting leaders. Ministers were figuring out how to not offend Trump and his gang. And which vegetarian dishes to include in the menus for visiting dignatories.
Parliament debated about who stood where during some ceremony - not on what happens when India's goundwater runs dry, which at current rates, happens before 2035 in several states. As per some Soros-funded report.
We are used to all this. The heat is not new. It has been building for 30 years. Scientists have screamed. International reports have named Indian cities among the most climate-vulnerable on earth. Lucknow, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Pune - becoming increasingly unbearable to survive. While mass media kept promoting Melody.
You will not find a single coherent, funded, time-bound national heat action plan. You'll find press releases. Committees. Pilot projects. Newspaper ads. Hoardings. Posters. But zero action.
Forests are being cleared for highways, data centers, smart cities that exist mostly in muted videos. God only knows. The people making these decisions have SUVs, bungalows and ACs at 18°C. The people paying for these decisions carry water in used plastic bottles and sleep on pavements. Concrete pavements. With no shade.
In all the uncertainty around us, there are few things 100% certain. June comes and rivers will overflow again. The same cities that were on fire in May will go underwater in July. Mumbai. Chennai. Bangalore. Gurgaon. The footage is identical every year - cars submerged, families on rooftops, choppers rescuing some villagers, bloated carcasses, snakes in living rooms. Same ministers, same aerial surveys, same promises, same funds - like repeat prime time news. Zero action.
Then winter arrives and the air turns into something you can hold in your hands. AQI crosses 400-500. Same prime time debates - Punjab stubble versus Delhi firecrackers versus vehicular pollution. After 15 years we still haven't figured out even the problem. The solution seems a few centuries away. If we are lucky, then by 2047. Meanwhile, we can watch Arnab shouting from our TV screens. Sheer display of lung power when AQI crosses 500.
What's missing is not knowledge. India has world-class climate scientists. IITs publish excellent research. Down to Earth has data over the years. What's missing is political intention and competence. They do not exist. No, sir.
The citizen, exhausted and gaslit, has done what humans do when institutions fail them completely. Adapted. Resigned. Called it destiny. Blamed it on gods. The earlier ones. And that resignation is perhaps the most dangerous thing - it tells the political class there is no cost to inaction. They can and will continue taking everyone for granted. And keep fudging data to make it look unbelievably good.
In a country riding on heated religious fervour, the man-facilitated failures will be assigned to 'acts of God'. While fellow citizens will continue to master the art of sleeping with eyes wide open.
1 USD =
Rs. 60: Elect us. We will bring it down to Rs. 40.
Rs. 70: Working on it. Happening very soon.
Rs. 80: Look, it will take time. Need to undo 60 years.
Rs. 90: What are you complaining about? It's good for the economy.
Rs. 95: How does it matter anyway?
@DivaJain2 Hmm... Tell this to a Venezuelan, Argentine, Lebanese, or Turkish middle class saver that “you earn and spend locally so currency collapse doesn’t matter.”
You know Abraham Lincoln once said - "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."
The scuffle broke out at fuel station at Wasim, Akola in Maharashtra. Farmers are struggling to get the fuel for their tractors for tilling & farm related work. There is severe shortage of fuel. People have to wait for uncertain period to get the fuel at many fuel stations.
Don’t be misguided. The rupee isn’t falling because the innocent common man is buying cooking oil or gold for his sister’s future.
The rupee is falling because FIIs have sold ₹2 lakh crore worth of Indian stocks in 2026 alone and don’t intend to stop anytime soon.
Instead of asking innocent people to struggle in public buses, please stop your rallies, come to the office, and abolish STT, LTCG, and STCG on an urgent basis.