As Diwali pollution chokes Delhi, Right wing’s celebration takes a toxic turn on social media

by Oishani Bhattacharya

Like past years, the celebration of Diwali on social media by the flagbearers of Hindutva turned toxic this year as well, thanks to the Right wing’s keenness to brag that a majoritarian festival could be celebrated with total disregard for rules and laws, pollution control measures and health concerns of fellow citizens and animals. While a widely circulated photo showed Delhi chief minister Rekha Sharma meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Diwali with an air purifier turned on in the room, pro-BJP influencers showed off their insensitivity like a badge of honour by glorifying pollution and abusing anyone who was complaining.

Swiss group IQAir recorded an AQI of 442 for New Delhi, making it the world’s most polluted major city on October 21, a day after Diwali, with PM2.5 levels over 59 times the WHO-set limit. In the early hours of October 21, Delhi’s air quality deteriorated to the very poor category, with average AQI touching 351 and hourly PM2.5 levels peaking to 675 micrograms per cubic metre — the highest since 2021. The previous day, that is on Diwali, the AQI stood at 354, again the worst for Delhi in four years.

It should be noted that this year, the Supreme Court removed the blanket ban on the sale of firecrackers in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) and allowed the sale of ‘green crackers’ ahead of Diwali. It also fixed a two-hour time period (8pm to 10pm) for bursting crackers. The order, passed by Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran, was described by the Bench as a “test case” to check if a regulated framework could align with pollution control efforts.

By October 21 afternoon, air quality improved marginally, with AQI still hovering between 300 and 400 — the ‘very poor’ range.

For the Right Wing, Pollution is Propaganda

Considering any complaint about the horrifying levels of pollution in Delhi as propaganda, the Hindutva champions stormed the social media space with abuses and derisive posts.

No sooner did YouTuber Dhruv Rathee post a video on his X page on October 18 asking his audience to desist from burning firecrackers, than pro-Right social media users began sharing images of firecrackers that they had apparently hoarded. While some questioned Rathee’s stake in it, others involved in whataboutery and asked why he didn’t show environmental concerns on Bakrid.

Below are screenshots of a few posts made by the users in response:@thekumarshyam, @satya_AmitSingh, @payal_trustable, @saisooryan and @Shobhitcool2001.

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The inanity reached such epic proportions that soon, bursting firecrackers and showing it off turned into some kind of activism even as Delhi’s air quality continued plummeting. In their missionary zeal to scoff at all pleas against crackers, some ended up comparing the situation in Delhi to Gaza. Israel’s war in Gaza — the random bombing of cities, readers should note, has killed over 68,000 Palestinians and maimed thousands of children.

X user raushan SInha (@MrSinha_), a BJP supporter who shares communal propaganda and disinformation on a regular basis, wrote, “The whole area has become Gaza”. (Archive)

It should be noted that this user played a key role in amplifying pro-Israeli propaganda and misinformation when the Israel-Hamas war was at its peak after October 7, 2023.

In a show of abysmal depravity, film director Ram Gopal Varma, too, alluded to Gaza in an X post on October 20 which seemed to mock the genocide. (Archive)

Perhaps the vilest attack was faced by senior BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy who wrote on X, “Exploding fire crackers after 10 pm today is a criminal offence. Police should crackdown on them”. Right-wing influencer Chandan Sharma (Hindutva Knight/@HPhobiaWatch) commented to this targeting Swamy’s daughter, journalist Suhasini Haidar, using obscene language for being married to a Muslim man.

Alt News has reported on Hindutva Knight’s abusive online behaviour and doxxing of women in the past.

Several other users, such as @NamitaBalyan, @AchAnkurArya, and @JaipurDialogues, posted photos showing the firecrackers and the knight sky shrouded in smog. Most of them saw this as a chest-thumping opportunity or a perfect riposte to any objection to the use of crackers. User @JaipurDialogues posted a video with a sarcastic remark: “Delhi following court orders!”.

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The widely shared concern for pets also came under attack. Readers should note that the distress of pets and stray animals during Diwali is well documented. Even the raising of such concerns was seen as an affront to Hindutva sentiments.

X user Vaishali Mishra (@1VaishaliMishra), who describes herself as an advocate in her bio, posted a video of crackers being burst and wrote a caption in Hindi that can only be described as perverse. It said, “The society folks have been smoked out 😊 Tonight, the dogs won’t get any sleep”. (Archive)

A user who claimed their dog had died because of fire crackers was viciously trolled. Below are a few instances:

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Besides a lack of basic empathy, these posts revealed two significant things: An underlying insecurity and a sense of impunity. The insecurity is signaled by the constant urge to prove supremacy and raise questions like “What about Bakrid pollution?”. A similar trend was also seen from the Right wing during Holi after Telangana police had issued a directive to not put colour on individuals who were not interested in playing Holi. The other aspect — the sense of impunity — is self evident in posts celebrating flouting of a Supreme Court ruling.

An X user named Dr Shivam ‘da’ (@angryoldman27), who claims to be a cancer surgeon, kept posting videos of himself bursting banned crackers and mocking anti-fire cracker posts.

ALSO READ: Holi 2025: Consent goes for a toss again; violence against women, religious minorities takes front seat

‘Diwali Bashing’ is a ‘Pastime’: Times Now

Times Now did a bulletin where they claimed that complaining against Diwali pollution in Delhi and NCR was the ‘ecosystem’s’ favourite pastime. Anchor Pranesh Kumar Roy said that every year, a toolkit was activated to blame Delhi’s pollution crisis only on one Hindu festival, which was Diwali. This, he pointed out, was a ‘selective and insidious campaign that is as lethal to our social fabric as pollution’. It is not clear whether he realised the self-contradictory nature of the statement.

News18 journalist and anchor Rubika Liyaquat shared an X post on October 20, where she prided herself on the fact that bursting of firecrackers will cause trouble to fellow citizens.

She shared another post the next day, saying, “May the lamps burn bright and the hypocrites’ hearts as well.”

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