On Friday (October 29), the Calcutta High Court ordered a complete ban on all kinds of firecrackers throughout the state of West Bengal during Diwali/Kali Puja. According to reports, the ban on firecrackers would also apply for all other upcoming festivities in the state including Guru Nanak Jayanti, Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. The development came after a PIL was filed in the Court by a traveller cum filmmaker Roshni Ali.
In a Facebook post on Thursday (October 28), Roshni Ali had confirmed that she had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Calcutta High Court to ban the use of crackers ahead of Diwali. “My lawyer-friend Rachit Lakhmani will be supporting me and arguing the case on my behalf. The air quality of the city is very unhealthy, it’s bound to get worse with crackers and the onset of winter. Please help me save our lungs. Tomorrow is our hearing in the High Court. Wish me luck and do share,” she wrote.
This is however not the first time that the traveler-cum-filmmaker had turned to environmental activism during Diwali. In a Facebook post dated November 15, 2018, Roshni Ali had demonised those who celebrated Diwali by burning crackers as ‘certified idiots.’ She had claimed, “All this plastic will be taken to Dhapa and burnt. Then, we will breathe the toxic air. Please wake up.”
Love for Beef and patronising behaviour towards Hindus
Despite her concerns about the rapidly-changing climate, Roshni Ali did not shy away from letting her followers know about her love for beef steak. In a tweet posted 7 years ago, she had written “Beefsteak never felt so good – at CCFC.” Interestingly, meat consumption accounts for about 60% of all greenhouse gases from food production.
Not just Diwali, Ali had resorted to patronising behaviour before other Hindu festivals as well. During Ganesh Chaturthi in August last year, she suggested that the celebration of Lord Ganesha was meaningless, given that elephants are supposedly ‘abused’ each day.
During Janamashtami last year, she propagated that the idea of ‘cruelty-free milk’ was a hoax and urged Hindus to go vegan and drink plant-based milk. She has shared a post citing differences in attitudes towards cow in present era and during the reign of Lord Krishna.
Evoking ‘Hindu guilt’ and display of ‘secular credentials’
On the day of ‘Bhoomi Pujan‘ of the majestic Ram Mandir in August 2020, Roshni Ali took to Facebook to evoke a sense of ‘guilt’ among her Hindu followers. To propagate the idea that the construction of the much-anticipated Hindu temple was wrong, she had shared a poem titled ‘Deeno Daan‘ by Rabindranath Tagore. “There is no God in that temple, said the Saint,” read the first line of the translated version of the poem. Using it in the context of Bhoomi Pujan to mock Hindu sentiments, she claimed that Tagore’s poem was the prophecy of a visionary leader.
On August 5 last year, she had also penned a blog titled, ‘#RamMandirAyodhya | The Ultimate Humiliation of Sita’ on her website. At the time of writing this article, the blog stands deleted.
While sharing it on Facebook, she had written, “South Indian is feeling threatened by the North Indian agenda, #LandOfRavana has been trending on Twitter. Similarly, Islamic sentiments have been hurt. Twitter storm #ReturnBabrilandtoMuslims has been trending all afternoon At this point, it’s a little hard to say which Twitter campaign has been politically funded.”
Ali, who clearly opposed the idea of Hindus reclaiming their lost culture and heritage, had earlier cited her own example to display her tolerance to diversity, and the concept of pluralism. She had opposed the humanitarian Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that sought to fast track the citizenship of persecuted religious minorities, from the three neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, living illegally in India before December 31, 2014.
She had claimed, “Who am I? My father was a Muslim, my mother was a Hindu. My entire education has been heavily influenced by Christianity. I have aunts in Pakistan and Bangladesh and my grandmother was from Britain. I’m wearing a silver Buddha pendant while my passport says I’m Muslim. I visit a Kali temple weekly about I love my ‘Ali’ title because that’s all I left of my father.”
Political views of Roshni Ali
A quick glance at the Facebook and Twitter profiles of Roshni Ali clearly shows her anti-BJP stance and her against the Modi-led government on an array of issues. In August last year, the Supreme Court had held advocate Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt of court. The case pertained to two tweets where Prashant Bhushan had cast aspersions against the Supreme Court and specifically, CJI Bobde. However, Ali had dubbed the apex Court’s action as an act of ‘tyranny’.
While speaking on the Kashmir issue, Ali parroted the usual lines of the left-Islamist bandwagon in India. While responding to one Facebook user, she had remarked, “…Many Kashmiri have seen so much injustice and brutality, they want Freedom. We can’t call ourselves democracy and if we rule with tyranny.”
Roshni Ali had also shared a ‘propaganda’ picture, which was originally posted by ‘journalist’ Paranjoy Guha Thakurta. The traveller cum filmmaker tried to suggest that only Mamata Banerjee, of all political leaders, believed in the ground survey while others relied on aerial survey.
Diwali is the festival of ‘lights, which is celebrated in memory of the homecoming of Lord Ram to Ayodhya from Lanka after defeating Ravana. Roshni Ali had earlier opposed the construction of the Ram temple, tried to evoke a sense of guilt among Hindus and stooped to patronising behaviour during Ganesh Chaturthi and Janmashtami. It thus should come as no surprise while Ali’s activism has sharpened once again before Diwali.
