Delhi Shabdotsav 2026 Begins: A "Surgical Strike" on Ideological Terrorism?

On Thursday, cabinet minister Kapil Mishra took X, calling this event, 'surgical strike against ideological terrorism'.

He wrote, "Jihaadi aur naksali vaicharik aatankwaad pr aaj hogi surgical strike hai-desh ka sabse bada Lit Fest aaj se shuru ho rha hai Delhi ke National Stadium mein. Delhi ki CM @gupta_rekha ji krengi Shabdotsav ka ugathan #Shabdotsav."

The event will highlight India's cultural, literary, and ideological consciousness.

The festival will feature over 100 prominent speakers, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, and showcase more than 40 book releases, six cultural performances, and two poets' meets.

Earlier, while extending New Year wishes, the Delhi Chief Minister highlighted several developmental works carried out by the government throughout 2025. She said that in Delhi, treatment up to ₹10 lakh was made free for people under the Ayushman scheme.

She also mentioned that under Atal Canteen initiative, a full meal is provided for ₹5, and this move she said, was widely appreciated by poor workers.The Chief Minister added that several schemes were approved for infrastructure development and that significant progress was made in improving the city's Ease of Doing Business.

She further addressed the environmental challenges facing the National Capital, noting the persistent poor air quality in the city. Talking about the environmental actions taken by the government, Gupta claimed that they have stopped stubble burning in the city and have installed the first biogas plant in the city.

"From the environmental point of view, what people felt most about what happened for the environment this year, the work of end-to-end carpeting of roads started, new machinery was used so that better cleaning can be done. We completely stopped stubble burning in Delhi and many things that were better for the environment were started. All these works are just a beginning. Many works are still to be done. Delhi has so many problems, so many legacy problems, all of them have to be solved. And 2025 was just a preparation and in 2026, all those works have to be taken to their destination, further forward. The first biogas plant we started in Delhi, many more biogas plants are to be built today. There is a need to build a plant for our e-waste, for which we have now started the process," said Gupta.

In her video message, Delhi Chief Minister further promised to remove mountains of garbage from various parts of the city.

- ANI