The Delhi Police had posted a video on their X handle on October 25, which urged citizens to not burn crackers this Diwali. Along with a meme video, the post was captioned: “This festive season, let tails wag, not tuck. Say NO to crackers, YES to a greener Diwali.”

Soon after the post was made, social media users had predicted that it would be removed soon. Incidentally, just within a few hours of the post being made, the Delhi Police removed it from X.

While Delhi Police did not issue any clarification as to why the post was taken down, several X users wondered whether the reason behind the post being taken down was perhaps the purported pressure from the BJP-led central government.

Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair had also remarked on Delhi Police’s post, before it was taken down, with the caption: “This tweet will soon be deleted due to political pressure.”

Another X user, Jeevansh Arya, shared a screen grab of the Delhi Police’s post and questioned whether it would be deleted.

After the post was deleted, many social media users posted that they expected something like this to happen.

The official handle of Indian Youth Congress also questioned the logic behind the retreat of the Delhi Police.

Administrative Indecision in The Past

This is, however, not the first time that the Delhi administration retracted its position during Diwali regarding firecrackers. Over the past two years, Delhi’s authorities and the courts have attempted to take a strong stance against firecrackers due to the city’s severe air pollution, but they have often backtracked on their decisions.

Ahead of Diwali 2024, the Delhi government imposed a complete ban on the manufacture, sale, storage and bursting of all firecrackers until January 1, 2025. The Supreme Court later criticised the poor enforcement of the ban and suggested that the government consider making it permanent. In December 2024, the Delhi government told the court that it had imposed a year-round ban on firecrackers.

However, the position changed soon. In April 2025, the Supreme Court refused to relax the ban, but in October it allowed green crackers to be sold and used in Delhi-NCR for a limited period during Diwali. The court said these crackers had to meet standards set by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), and allowed their use only during specified hours. The Delhi government and the Centre supported the relaxation.

In effect, the authorities moved from a complete ban on firecrackers to allowing a limited category of green crackers, despite earlier court observations that even green crackers could not be considered a comprehensive solution to Delhi’s pollution problem.

Delhi Pays The Price

Delhi’s air quality worsened sharply during Diwali 2025, with the city’s AQI (Air Quality Index)  reaching almost 500, falling under the hazardous category. Firecracker bursting was followed by a dramatic rise in PM2.5 and PM10 levels.

According to a Times of India report, between 9 pm and 10 pm on Diwali 2025, the PM 2.5 concentration of Delhi’s Nehru Nagar region saw a spike from 679 micrograms per cubic metre to 1,763µg/m³. The report also mentioned that the peak PM2.5 concentration was more than 29 times the national daily limit of 60 µg/m³ and around 118 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily guideline.

Pollution Concerns Framed as Anti-Hindu

Following Diwali last year, Alt News had written about the Right-wing supporters in the country interpreting complaints on the detrimental environmental effects of bursting firecrackers as an “attack against Hindutva” itself.

YouTuber Dhruv Rathee had posted a video on his X page asking his audience to desist from burning firecrackers. Right-wing social media users immediately began sharing images of firecrackers that they had apparently hoarded. While some questioned Rathee’s stake in it, others indulged in whataboutery and asked whether he had shown environmental concerns on Bakrid. Certain users went to the extent of mockingly comparing the extreme pollution levels in India to the genocide in Gaza.

Similarly, when BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy 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) targeted Swamy’s daughter, The Hindu’s Diplomatic Editor, Suhasini Haidar, using obscene language for being married to a Muslim man.

Several Right-wing accounts, such as @NamitaBalyan, @AchAnkurArya, and @JaipurDialogues, posted photos showing the firecrackers and the knight sky shrouded in smog, ultimately dismissing grave environmental concerns under the garb of protecting Hindu festivals.