On Monday morning, New Delhi woke up to the news of Supreme Court’s ban on sale of firecrackers till November 1. Though the apex court didn’t ban bursting of firecrackers, the ban on sale of firecrackers, the court said, was to measure the impact of Diwali on Delhi’s poor air quality.
Soon after SC’s order, a string of reactions started pouring in from various sections of the society. While many debated whether the ban was really an answer to Delhi’s air woes, others showed support in favour of apex court’s view on the matter.
One of the critics of the order was famous fiction writer Chetan Bhagat. According to the writer, the full scale ban on firecrackers would deprive children the happiness associate with Diwali.
However, his following tweets questioned why “only Hindu festivals” were being banned. He also went on to equate firecracker ban with the “banning [of] Christmas trees on Christmas and goats on Bakr-Eid(sic).”
This didn’t go down well with Twitterati who began to slam Bhagat for bringing in religious angle to the debate. One of the respondents was Congress MP and former diplomat Shashi Tharoor who pointed out that firecrackers are “unholy add-ons” to the festival of lights.
Many corrected Bhagat about the meaning and essence of Diwali.
A few of the users pointed out the impact crackers have on the health of children and elderly.
However, the novelist was unrelenting in his stand and also complained that he was being abused and trolled for his criticism of SC order.
The writer also had suggestions to reduce the level of pollution instead of targeting firecrackers on Diwali.
Feature image source: Twitter