From gaffe clips to stadium chants: How AAP turns AQI into a Gupta label

New Delhi: Slogans of “AQI, AQI” were raised at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Monday as Chief Minister Rekha Gupta arrived for an event featuring football star Lionel Messi, in an episode that BJP sources insist was the product of a sustained AAP campaign and then presented online as a spontaneous public reaction.

BJP functionaries and government sources claimed a small, motivated group triggered the chanting, banking on the ridicule ecosystem AAP has built around Gupta’s public speaking slips. 

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The aim, they said, was to carry that template from reels to a crowd setting and generate a clip that would outrun any official rebuttal.

AAP leaders, however, moved quickly to project the moment as public anger over Delhi’s air and Gupta’s handling of it. Party-linked handles circulated videos from the stadium, pitching the chants as proof that the chief minister is being mocked on pollution even outside overtly political settings.

The “AQI” taunt did not begin at the stadium, BJP sources argued. They said it was planted through a months-long cycle of gaffe clips that AAP has been pushing since losing power in February 2025.

One of the earliest hooks, they said, was a clip from a public appearance in which Gupta referred to AQI as “AIQ”, a slip that AAP amplified aggressively to brand her as an ill-informed chief minister on pollution. 

The “AIQ” punchline travelled through memes and captions, and soon became a shorthand jibe in party posts and supporter chatter.

That campaign tightened further after Gupta’s “AQI is like temperature” remark at the HT Leadership Summit. The line was framed by her side as an attempt to simplify jargon, but it backfired online and gave AAP another viral segment to stack onto the earlier “AIQ” clip.

Arvind Kejriwal posted the “temperature” video on X and asked when “AQI has now become temperature”. Soon after, AAP leaders and official handles amplified it with mocking tags, presenting it as further proof that Gupta is not up to the job.

BJP leaders argued that once such catchphrases are seeded through repetition, they become easy to trigger in a crowd, especially when cameras are rolling and the setting is high-profile. 

They claimed the intent was also to mock Delhiites over the choice of chief minister after Kejriwal’s defeat, with AAP continuing to project him as sharper and more “high IQ”.

According to this reading, a handful of people started the slogans with a political goal, but others joined in without recognising the prompt. 

“AQI” is now familiar enough to pass as a straight protest line on Delhi’s toxic air, even when its immediate use is politically choreographed.

When a slogan can read as both political theatre and a genuine complaint, it becomes difficult to separate coordination from sentiment. The same ambiguity also helps online. Viewers who see a short clip without context often assume the chanting is entirely organic.

The Messi event added a second layer of stature. A global sports icon draws cameras, fans and fast-moving social media content. That gives any crowd moment a bigger footprint than a regular political rally clip.

AAP’s argument is that if Gupta is being greeted with “AQI” at such a venue, it underlines how deeply the pollution narrative is sticking to her public image. BJP leaders have privately responded by calling it a manufactured heckle dressed up as public mood.

Gupta’s visibility strategy has also become part of the political framing. In recent months, she has appeared frequently in short videos and reels, often positioned to create a direct social media connect. 

Critics have begun calling her a “reel CM”, arguing that visibility is not translating into improvement in civic amenities.

AAP is feeding off that perception. If a leader is seen primarily through clips, then politics is also fought through clips. A gaffe becomes a label, and a crowd chant becomes “proof” of that label.

The reality may be messier than either side’s claim. A politically triggered slogan can still attract real participation if the issue resonates, and Delhi’s air remains a daily winter grievance. 

At the same time, the stadium episode shows how quickly a campaign built around “AIQ” and other slips can be converted into a crowd moment, and then sold online as a public verdict.