I have been a part of Chhath Puja celebrations since my mother started observing it when I was still a child. This year was my first Chhath Puja away from home in Bihar's Siwan district. But the stark absence of Chhath songs playing at Delhi's Kalindi Kunj, on the banks of the Yamuna river where the annual celebrations take place, not only made me lose the excitement I had turned up there with but also made me feel a bit homesick.
One must, nevertheless, credit the devotees for making up for the lack of Chhath songs with their enthusiasm. Irrespective of the bad air and water quality, or the fact that the sun did not show up on the evening of 27 October or even the next morning, there was no pause in terms of celebration or rituals.
For my friend, Syed Abubakr, who accompanied me to the Yamuna River bank, it was a first-time experience from the outset.
At the ghats, we met 25-year-old Sanjeev Kumar, who hails from Bihar’s Nawada district. He moved to Delhi with his parents in 2004. The last time his family travelled back to Bihar for Chhath Puja was in 2010. It has been 15 years since then, and the national capital has become their city of dreams as well as festivals.
“We come here every single year with our family to perform Chhath Puja. It is a matter of pride for us. It is bigger than Diwali,” he says as he stands at the Yamuna Ghat. “The vibe can never match that of our hometown, though. It's always special back home.”
Thousands of Poorvanchali devotees like him, who largely form the community of migrants from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, gathered at the Yamuna Ghats on the evening of the third day of Bihar’s Mahaparv—as they call it—for Sandhya Arghya, an evening ritual of Chhath Puja.
Women in vibrant sarees, balancing bamboo soops (trays) laden with fruits, wade into the river’s shallows, offering prayers to Chhathi Maiya (Mother) amid flickering diyas. Men in kurtas throng the ghats with Dauras (large bamboo baskets filled with offerings) on their heads.
But the Yamuna, revered as a divine mother, betrays a grim reality year after year.
Its waters churn with toxic foam—though comparatively less in amount this year—thanks to the suppression of foam, allegedly through the use of chemicals.
“It was hell last year. It is much cleaner this year. We see foam, but at a distance. It is nowhere near the place marked for us to offer Arghya and pray,” says 32-year-old Kusum Devi, who hails from Bihar’s Gaya but resides in Delhi.
The foam, which is a frothy cocktail of industrial effluents, untreated sewage, and detergents, has garnered headlines and eyeballs every Chhath season. And, therefore, it isn’t just a festival of austerity and gratitude—it’s a high-stakes political theatre where Delhi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, as political analysts say, is trying to court the city’s Poorvanchali voters, days before Bihar goes to the polls for assembly elections. In the same vein, CM Gupta offered prayers at Chhath Ghat on Monday evening.
The election in Bihar is scheduled to take place on 6 and 11 November. The results will be out on 14 November.
The Chief Minister had recently vowed a foam-free Yamuna this Chhath and said, “Some people are attempting to spread misleading information regarding the condition of the Yamuna, which must be avoided. During the Chhath festival, no froth will be seen in the Yamuna, and devotees will be able to perform the rituals of this festival with full devotion.”
However, opposition leaders dismissed the cleaner appearance as superficial, alleging that chemicals were used to suppress the foam without tackling the root causes—untreated sewage and industrial waste.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) questioned how the BJP, particularly Water Minister Parvesh Verma, was terming the defoamer “poison” when the then AAP government led by Arvind Kejriwal used it, and is now seeing an anti-pollution “weapon” in it.
At the Yamuna Ghat, where devotees were performing Chhath, we found a large number of empty containers. Locals claimed they contained the chemical used to de-foam the river, that were kept inside a tent closed from all sides—in what appeared to be an attempt to hide them from the media and the public gaze. This anti-foaming agent is typically employed in industrial applications.
Experts warn that these measures merely address surface-level symptoms, noting that foam would naturally decrease if the river’s health were improved by reducing pollution. Authorities have reportedly said that they are using a chemical approved by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) to suppress the foam.
The foam on the Yamuna River around Delhi mainly results from high levels of phosphates, surfactants, and detergents, along with PFAs—per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—which are persistent organic pollutants linked to serious health and environmental risks, including liver damage, thyroid issues, elevated cholesterol, immune and reproductive system disorders, testicular and kidney cancers, hormonal imbalances, and developmental effects in children.
Environmentalist Bhavreen Kandhari says it is a step taken under political and social pressure, and instead of actually cleaning the river, it adds a new source of pollutant.
“Spraying chemicals to suppress the foam on the Yamuna is nothing more than an optic cover-up. It may make the river look cleaner for a few hours, but it does nothing to address the untreated sewage and industrial waste that cause the pollution in the first place," Kandhari said.
"Instead of hiding the symptoms, authorities must focus on upgrading sewage treatment plants, enforcing effluent standards, and restoring the river’s natural balance. You can dissolve the foam, but not the failure beneath it. And a city that’s already dealing with polluted air and water doesn’t need more toxicity in any way.”Bhavreen Kandhari, Environmentalist
Since the Yamuna Action Plan began in 1993, over Rs 8,000 crore has been spent, including Rs 6,500 crore by the Delhi government between 2017 and 2021. Despite these investments, the river’s condition remains dire, raising questions about the effectiveness of these public funds.
Despite the absence of the setting sun, worshippers stood steadfast in the river’s waters, their faith undeterred, even as the city’s persistent air pollution underscored the environmental challenges overshadowing this sacred celebration.
“The water is dirty, the air is polluted. Governments are sleeping as we are forced to breathe toxic air and perform our rituals in dirty water. Absence of foam does not make the river pure. The water is still muddy. We are bathing in it because of our culture; otherwise, the water is not suitable for it,” says 48-year-old Kamlesh Tiwari, who accompanied his family to the Chhath Ghat.
Delhi’s Chhath preparations went on for weeks. Over 1,300 ghats, including 17 new “model” ones from Palla to Kalindi Kunj, boast tents, lighting, and Bhojpuri cultural programs. Gupta, who declared October 27 a public holiday, inspected ghats, promising a “froth-free” river.
“PM Modi cancels his Chhath Puja & Surya Arghya at ‘Fake Yamuna’ manufactured at Vasudev Ghat. BJP leadership seems quite embarrassed that their CM’s fraud on pollution has been exposed widely on social media. Imagine that just a week before Bihar elections, the PM could not publicly celebrate Chhath and spread videos & photos. I think it was cancelled at the last moment, so it was too late for PMO to plan another place,” AAP's Saurabh Bharadwaj posted on X on Tuesday morning, taking a dig at the Delhi BJP government.
Political experts say that the BJP’s Chhath push—including the holiday, ghats, and cultural optics—is a calculated move to woo Bihar’s voters.
Experts call it “migrant diplomacy,” noting that the BJP’s Yamuna gestures signal cultural empathy to sway Bihar’s booths.
Despite these challenges, the absence of foam on the Yamuna offered a glimmer of hope for worshippers, who celebrated the festival with renewed optimism for a cleaner future. However, the water quality of the Yamuna remains abysmal.
Chhath—a sacred ritual and a revered festival—has become a battleground of promises, hypocrisy, and electoral math ahead of the Bihar elections.
As Tuesday’s Usha Arghya dawns, the foam may fade under sprays, but the political froth won’t. And that’s Chhath’s core irony: a festival of purity drowning in a river of politics.
(Sumit Singh and Syed Abubakr are second-year MA student in Convergent Journalism at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.)
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