Delhi Drifts as Rekha Gupta’s CM Stamp Remains Missing
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta speaks to reporters (Image Gupta on X)
Delhi’s governance deficit has become acute while BJP gears to celebrate one year in office
By MANISH ANAND
New Delhi, February 4, 2026 — In another fortnight, Rekha Gupta will lock one year in office as Chief Minister of Delhi. Plans are afoot to celebrate the feat by the Delhi government. Among measures on anvil is a “cruise on Yamuna.”
In about one year, Gupta has been far from rising to the challenge of the office of the Chief Minister. She has hit headlines for unglorifying reasons—husband as her shadow in meetings, gaffes, failed bid for artificial rains, and a lot of reels in functions and events.
Air pollution has acquired alarming proportions in the last four months. Even Chinese embassy in New Delhi sought to give a guidance in cleaning the air of Delhi. Sportspersons went public against the foul air in Delhi.
After four months of aggravating pollution crisis, Gupta announced a funding of ₹500 crores for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
The civic body has earned a tag of an emperor of incompetence in Delhi over the years. The ability of the MCD to deal with a civic issue is not known publicly. But under the watch of the MCD, students have drowned to deaths in basement library.
Parts of Delhi have been flooded in Monsoon months. MCD oversees a chaotic Delhi with least evidence of civic governance. Gupta’s measure to bank on the MCD for anti-pollution measures seems an ignorance of the reality of Delhi.
On Chhath festival, Gupta had invited public ridicule after a drone footage showed that a special oasis was created on the banks of the Yamuna for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to partake in the festivity. A Yamuna cruise with the chemical foam-laden still pool of water may invite similar ridicule.
Governance is not an event business. This seems lost to Gupta and her ministerial colleagues in the national capital. Delhi’s BJP government remains in event mode even one year after wresting power in the city. Last one year seems to suggest that the BJP hadn’t thought beyond winning the Assembly election in the city.
The hallmark of a Chief Minister with appetite for governance is vision. Delhi still remembers Sheila Dikshit. Her vision gave the city its flyovers, hospitals, and schools. Gupta in her one year in the office has given reels.
But reels feed to the entertainment hunger quotient of the people. Governance is about anticipation and urgency. That Delhi’s people are now condemned to breathe poison is not an accident—it is a lasting symbol of gross and repeated governance failures.
(This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are author’s own.)
Delhi Metro Push Won’t Clean Air—Unless Car Cities Plugged In
Follow The Raisina Hills on WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn
About The Author
