As a law student I am supposed to write about advocacy and policy. While I believe it to be helpful in my professional life,I also believe that my Co-founder and I created this blog for it to help debate and talk about everything that is wrong with our Indian system and society,especially when people claim it to be in the name of religion.
While I contemplated a lot before writing this article and thinking what good will my article do,I remembered the sole reason for us to come together and put together our entire act into an organisation was to stand up for the things that we believe in.
Our festivals of lights,Diwali just passed. This festival used to be my favourite festival since I was a kid but the reason why I loved it the most soon became the reason I have started to hate it. A custom of wearing new clothes,praying to our Gods and then the part I could barely wait for every time this festival arrived,the part where we burnt crackers.
Burning crackers used to be a tradition at my house,everyone used to gather round and celebrate the festival of lights. But the reason why I adored this festival this year became the hazard that I could never fathom for it to be.
Why is this relevant for me to write about?
This is relevant because people across the city of Delhi-NCR have come up with excuses to justify their actions.
Everyone was and is aware that the air breathed in these four cities is deemed to be hazardous. And let me elucidate that anything above 100 appearing on your Air Quality Index that you have been checking out since Diwali to decide whether to step out of the house or to let your child play in the park is considered to be unhealthy.
The justifications that I heard for bursting some of the “green crackers” and a whole lot regular crackers were that it is a custom to burn crackers during Diwali and “oh,why do you no say anything to anyone when they burst crackers during New Years and Christmas.”
Among others there were also some who tried to blame everything else from the public transport system to “What will happen to the manufacturers who produce these crackers?”
Lets answer these questions one by one. Firsty all those people advocating for green crackers and claiming that they cause less harm to the air apparently,are you aware how these crackers are regulated and if they are at all regulated? Let me help you,they aren’t regulated and there is no regulation which is about to be imposed either,and judging by this country’s legislation,please don’t hold your breath.
The ones claiming that Indians burst crackers on New Years and Christmas and why don’t I put out posts blaming those people.
Well,for me this is not shifting of blame but realising that crackers are harming our already severely polluted air and if you’re asking me to blame every American,British et cetera citizen throughout the world,have a good look because their air is not as polluted as ours.
What stunned me the most when people were advocating this argument was how bizarre this argument was and how essentially well law students thought this argument was. This is exactly what we are taught in law school not to do. This is similar to claiming that because the other person committed a crime and got away with it that is essentially why you did it in the first place.
And even after arguing with “these” people that it was not about any other festivals or any other country doing it but about our nation and how we should not do something which would probably put our entire family at risk and worsen the air that we have no choice but to breathe,they still failed to understand anything at all.
To the people who blamed all the stubble burning after Mister Arvind Kejriwal pleaded the farmers to stop seemed a complete way out for them.
PS:The Government also pleaded you not to burst crackers. 🙂
Let me realistically put this problem to a test by saying that that night of Diwali everyone acted like farmers burning stubble at the same time(which is unlikely because every farmer throughout every state is not likely to burn their stubble every day,hence,the pollution that they were causing over some months you caused that in a day) which caused the Air Quality Index to dip down to 600 which is downright hazardous and also made me witness my little brother having problems breathing and vomiting because of the air quality. My brother is ten years old and I am sure that half of the people who burst crackers that night were among the ones who probably have small children around the age of my brother,let me just tell you that the iota of happiness that you gave your child that night by burning crackers that night for “just their sake” is completely not worth the amount of problems that you caused him/her in the long run and it sure as hell is not your right to make other people’s children,people who were careful and considerate and who witnessed their kid having respiratory problems at a very young age.
To everyone who says that that was just one night of fun and relaxation,you all certainly did contribute to something big,dipping the air quality index to 600 and jeopardizing the lives of everyone living in the city,making the cities of Delhi and NCR a worldwide headline for people across the Globe to never want to visit the city.
Something funny that I had seen was the reaction of Indian people over a twitter thread of how Indian people in New Jersey had celebrated Diwali where they left tons of waste on the road. Ironically,Indians living in India were more disgraced with that while being in denial about the massacre of this polluted air that they caused and everyone is breathing today.
Humans for Change 