On Thursday (November 4), Indian chess grandmaster Ramachandran Ramesh endorsed the celebration of the Hindu festival ‘Diwali’ by burning firecrackers.
In a tweet, he wrote, “Proper way to celebrate Diwali! Happy Diwali wishes to all!” The chess wizard had shared an image of him holding a long thread of firecrackers, outside his residence. Ramachandran Ramesh thus became one of the high profile celebrities to not toe the liberal line and remain unapologetic about celebrating the Hindu festival.
Proper way to celebrate Diwali! Happy Diwali wishes to all! pic.twitter.com/1e3uRfpawS
— Ramesh RB (@Rameshchess) November 4, 2021
As expected, he soon came under a barrage of attack by pseudo activists, left-liberal lobby and wannabe environmentalists whose sudden sense of sustainable development gets activated before Hindu festivals. One such patronising liberal, Shubhra Gupta, claimed, “Crackers and the stubble burning puts a lot of pressure on Delhi’s already fragile atmosphere. Banning crackers seems more controllable, although not permanent solution.”
Ramachandran Ramesh cited the IIT Kanpur report and pointed out that firecrackers did not feature in the top 15 list of pollutants affecting the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the National Capital. “Crackers is not even in the top 15 factors of pollution as per this IIT study based on science. But, let facts not come in way of narrative building. One tweet per year focusing on factors causing actual pollution will show real intent than going after soft targets.”
When one liberal tried to mock the chess grandmaster as stupid and ignorant, he responded, “Doing this stupidity since the age of 5 years. Thanks.”
Another liberal tried to patronise Ramachandran Ramesh and asked him to stick to chess instead. The chess wizard shut the troll by responding, “If you say so Mr. Secular. The Whole world is at your service.”
Diwali is a once in a year celebration for the Hindu community where people burst firecrackers in the evening to celebrate Lord Ram’s return to Ayodhya. While multiple governments, organisations and courts are launching a systematic attack against the Hindu festival, painting it as the evil cause behind air pollution, the claims are not supported by research and are dishonest, to say the least.
It is notable here that in 2016, a research study by IIT Kanpur had found that firecrackers are not the top contributors to Delhi’s poor air quality. The study had pegged construction dust as the top cause, followed by vehicular pollution and bad infrastructure, the next worst cause was stubble burning. However, during a hearing in a plea against the NGT order of ban against firecrackers this July, the Supreme Court had rejected the study, saying they do not need IIT Kanpur to decide that firecrackers cause pollution.
The pollution data of Delhi analysed by IIT Kanpur had suggested that suggest that the pollution caused by Diwali is extremely short-lived (less than 24 hrs), and is no worse than the usual spikes of pollutants that are present in Delhi’s air almost all the year.
