On Wednesday, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that anyone caught producing, storing or selling firecrackers in Delhi will face a fine of 5000 rupees and a three-year jail term. The minister said that those who burst firecrackers in the national capital would face up to six months in jail and a fine of 200 rupees. Soon this issue was given communal overtones.
Delhi is one of the most polluted capital cities globally, and India is one of the topmost polluted countries in the world. Still, we don’t have a national framework or policy related to firecrackers. Can a national issue have a state-specific policy response? Prema Sridevi UnBreaks this News for you!
(Produced below are the abridged version of the transcripts of the video explainer from Episode: 99 | UnBreak the News with Prema Sridevi | Title: Cracker Ban: Politics Over Pollution)
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On Wednesday, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that anyone caught producing, storing or selling firecrackers in Delhi will face a fine of 5000 rupees and a three-year jail term. The minister said that those who burst firecrackers in the national capital would face up to six months in jail and a fine of 200 rupees. Soon this issue was given communal overtones.
Delhi is one of the most polluted capital cities globally, and India is one of the topmost polluted countries in the world. Still, we don’t have a national framework or policy related to firecrackers. Can a national issue have a state-specific policy response? Let’s UnBreak this News!
A day after Delhi’s Environment Minister announced a complete ban on firecrackers and jail and fine for violators, a political slugfest ensued in the national capital. Delhi BJP Spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga released a video of supporters of Aam Aadmi Party’s newly inducted minister Raaj Kumar Anand bursting firecrackers and celebrating the elevation of Anand as a minister.
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The BJP spokesperson gave communal colours to the incident and said in a tweet: “If Hindus burn crackers on Diwali, there will be pollution, @ArvindKejriwal will send them to jail, but if the firecrackers are burnt in the joy of becoming a minister of Kejriwal, oxygen will come out of it.”
This is not the first time a ban on firecrackers during Diwali has resulted in a political slugfest. Every year these bans are called discriminatory by certain political parties, and politicians indulge in mudslinging matches. But India’s top court stated last year that a ban on firecrackers was not against any community. The Supreme Court had said: “Under the guise of enjoyment, you cannot play with the lives of citizens. We are not against a particular community. We want to send a strong message that we are here for the protection of fundamental rights of citizens.”
The Supreme Court on Thursday also refused to hear an urgent plea seeking the removal of a complete ban on firecrackers in the national capital. The plea filed by BJP MP Manoj Tiwari was refused by the apex court by stating - “Let the people of Delhi breathe clean air.”
The cracker ban issue is being seen as a fight between freedom of religion and the right to life. While BJP MP Manoj Tiwari has said that freedom of religion cannot be taken away under the pretext of the right to life, environmentalists say the right to life is supreme, and freedom of religion cannot be used to suppress citizen’s right to breathe clean air. While the politics over pollution continues in the national capital, the city’s air quality levels are set to deteriorate in the coming days.
As per the World Air Quality Index report, as of October 21, Delhi is the world’s second most polluted city with AQI levels of 161 and the national capital has been placed under the “unhealthy category”. The Central Pollution Control Board’s National Air Quality Index also places nearly all places within the national capital in “very poor” and “poor” categories.
The other contributing factor to pollution is the problem of stubble burning. The Centre for Science and Environment said on Thursday that concentrated stubble burning around Diwali might compound the problem of pollution.
India has some of the most polluted cities in the world, yet we don’t have a national regulation on crackers. Some of the states have formulated their own rules related to firecrackers. Depending on which state you live in, you can either be jailed or given a free hand to celebrate Diwali by bursting crackers.
While you will be allowed to burst crackers in Punjab for a two-hour window period from 8 pm to 10 pm on October 24, in neighbouring Delhi, you can be jailed for buying or bursting crackers. In Tamil Nadu, you will be allowed to burst crackers for an hour twice a day between 6 am to 7 am and 7 pm to 8 pm, but in West Bengal, only green firecrackers will be permitted during the Kali Puja on October 24.
Even when pollution is a national issue, we still don’t have a national framework for firecrackers. Will a state-specific response be enough to tackle a serious problem like pollution affecting all citizens’ health and quality of life? India is home to the world’s most polluted cities, yet our response to pollution is seasonal. Air pollution in India is a national challenge, and so it begs for a national response.