Key points
- Delhi minister Kapil Mishra asked Bhagwant Mann to file FIRs over what he says were 1,200 stubble fires in Punjab on Diwali; Punjab's data shows 1,152.
- Punjab's own satellite count put November 8 at 1,152 fires, against 163 on November 7.
- AAP's Saurabh Bhardwaj answered by alleging that Delhi's air quality data is manipulated.
Delhi minister Kapil Mishra asked Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday to file FIRs over what he called 1,200 stubble fires on Diwali, and said the fires were set deliberately to choke the capital. Speaking at a press conference in Delhi on November 9, Mishra called it “a conspiracy against farmers, against Diwali, against Delhi, against Punjab” and demanded that police check the phone records of AAP leaders in the affected areas.
What Mishra said
Mishra cited satellite data showing fires at 125 locations on November 7 and about 1,200 on Diwali night, a tenfold jump in a day. He said the data showed the fires were a premeditated move. He asked Mann to investigate the 1,200 fires, register FIRs, and examine the phone records of AAP members from Delhi who were in Punjab. If they had deliberately set fires, he said, “they should be sent to jail.” He also accused AAP of running a campaign to malign Diwali, which he said began two days earlier.
The minister offered no evidence beyond the satellite counts, and the sources read do not show him naming any individual.
What Punjab’s own numbers show
Punjab’s data confirms a sharp rise, though not the same figures. The state’s Remote Sensing Centre detected 1,152 farm fires on Sunday, November 8, the highest single day of the season, against 163 on November 7. Sangrur logged 194 of them. The season total reached 4,459, with 91.40% of the paddy area harvested.
Enforcement figures reported with the data show 2,998 locations inspected and 1,310 cases of burning physically verified. Tarn Taran has the most fires this season, 684 of which 306 were verified as stubble burning, followed by Firozpur with 592, of which 247 were verified.
Season in context
Despite the Diwali spike, this season sits far below recent years. Punjab recorded 5,114 farm fires in the 2025 paddy season, 10,909 in 2024 and 36,663 in 2023, according to the figures reported with the data. The 4,459 so far this year is near the 2025 total with the harvest almost finished.
The row over Delhi’s air
The charge came as Delhi’s air stayed poor after Diwali. Mishra said Delhi’s air was better than under the Kejriwal government, claiming post-Diwali pollution rose 43.33% in 2023 and about 10% in 2024 but fell 1.33% this year. He did not say which pollutants, areas or hours he used.
AAP turned the allegation back on the Delhi government. Delhi AAP president Saurabh Bhardwaj said the BJP-led government was tampering with air quality data, claiming that monitors in polluted spots were shut, about 20 new stations were placed in green areas and water was sprayed near monitors. He said AQI had crossed 3,000 in parts of Delhi on Diwali night. India’s official AQI scale tops out at 500, and pollutant concentrations are not the same as AQI values. AAP’s Shelly Oberoi said the BJP government must answer with action, not rhetoric.
BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal separately called the Diwali fires a “well-thought-out conspiracy” by Punjab’s AAP government.
What happens next
No response from the Punjab government to the FIR demand had been reported by Monday afternoon. Farm fires usually fall once the harvest ends, and with over 91% of the paddy area cleared, the coming days will show whether Diwali was a one-day spike or the start of a late surge. Delhi’s air quality commission and the GRAP stage in force will track the capital’s readings through the week.
The documents
- Kapil Mishra's press conference, Delhi, November 9, 2026 (statement)Delhi government, November 9, 2026