BAN ON CRACKERS IN DELHI-NCR..... My Take

BAN ON CRACKERS IN DELHI-NCR.....

                            

                                                  My Take

The honorable Supreme Court upholds the ban on the sale of crackers in Delhi and NCR on Diwali on Monday, October 9. I welcome this ban though the same has been criticized by many.

Come on! The SC has banned the sale of crackers. It is not a ban on celebrating Diwali.

Is this festival only about crackers? We always read that the Deepawali (literary means the lamps in a line) is the festival of light.

Some respectable people have demanded a ban on the rituals people of other religions observe on their festivals. A crying shame.

And, how this ban is against secularism? Hindus are a majority in India. So, a large population celebrates Diwali. Don’t you think we can set an example for all others by supporting this ban? This would give us a strong ground to condemn the similar wrong practices in other religions if there are any.

One of my revered friends wrote on Facebook “Nothing can be more secular than banning crackers on Diwali in India”. How true. How emphatic.


“Ban Acs, Ban cars, Ban Smoking”- the childish outcry I hear.

Yes, actually, all of these should be banned. None of these existed when life blossomed on earth and flourished for millions of years without any of these menaces and threats to life itself.

I have some questions for these people.

When you can’t tolerate a ban on something that you do for a day, will you tolerate a ban on the things which you’ve made the part of your life?

I want to ask whether the crackers had been invented when Lord Rama returned to Ayodhaya?

And, are momentary pleasures more important that you want them even if they cost you ages of discomfort?

And if yes, then don’t produce babies. Please. And if you have already brought them to live at this place already contaminated and unfit to live, kill them now. Because, you don’t have a right to leave them to live an unhealthy life because of your misdeeds.

I am a brahmin, a Hindu and I am proud of all my festivals including Diwali- The Festivals of Light. But, I represent life that dwell on this unique planet-unique because it supports life. For the privilege I and every breathing creäture on the earth, I have certain responsibility which, unfortunately, many like me don’t realize.

This earth is not the legacy we have got from our predecessors. We’ve borrowed it from our successors. We all are custodians of this environment as much as we’re the custodians of our cultural heritage. Celebrating festivals is our right in our secular country but within the precincts of my house. None of us owns this earth. So, this right doesn’t give us liberty to throw the refuse of our celebrations out of our house tarnishing the environment that belong to millions of other living creatures who don’t celebrate our festival.

Actually, The Supreme Court should not have imposed this ban.

The honorable court should have pronounced it in a different way.

The data showing pollution level must be displayed and announced three days before Diwali. Every seller must keep the record of the buyer with documents and the bills. If the pollution level rises on the Diwali day or within seven days after that, every person who bought crackers would pay a fine hundred times the amount of his bill?
That would have been more acceptable for the  intellectuals criticizing the ban.

I support and welcome cracker ban.

The views expressed are personal.