NEW DELHI: Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday sought a detailed debate in Parliament on air pollution where both government and opposition agree to search for a solution and not an acrimonious debate witnessed on the issues of Vande Mataram and SIR.
He asserted in the Lok Sabha: “The most of our major cities are living under a blanket of poisonous air. Millions of children are getting lung diseases, their future is being destroyed. People are getting cancer. Older people are struggling to breathe.”
Rahul talked of a full agreement on the issue between both sides since this is not an ideological issue as everyone will agree to cooperate in discussing the air pollution that is damaging the people.
“I think a good idea would be that we frame the discussion not on us saying what you have not done, and not on you saying what we have not done, but simply saying that what we are going to do for the people in India in the future, what are the action steps that we need to take.
“So, I would say that it would be an interesting experiment to see if instead of you blaming us and we blaming you, we can try and say – on this one issue where we agree, there is no disagreement… where we say- listen, let us just talk about the future of the people of India.”
Later talking to reporters in the Parliament House precincts, he said it is his idea that there is an unanimity on what could be the solution of the problem. Even inputs can be taken from the experts and show that “we are jointly working on the pollution.”
He said pollution is a national emergency and so he has suggested a productive debate instead of the blame game accusing each other.
