Cracker ban welcome, but questions do arise

The heart of the Supreme Court is evidently in the right place — it does want to prevent Delhi and the National Capital Region turning into a gas chamber around Diwali time. But it has tied itself up into knots, and should also perhaps explain why it should rule only for Delhi, and not the entire country.

On Monday, a three-judge bench reinstated the Delhi-NCR ban on the sale of firecrackers that was imposed in November 2016. This was necessary as a two-judge Supreme Court bench, responding to the manufacturers’ plea, had modified that order on September 12 to permit sales upto a limit and on a temporary basis. Naturally, sellers began to stock supplies for Diwali which lay just ahead, not knowing they’d run into a fresh ban.

The sequence of events shows how little thought judges of the highest court accorded the issue of dangerously poor air quality in Delhi and its surrounding areas around the year, but specially near Diwali, when the government has to resort to desperate measures. The incidence of respiratory illnesses shoots up and hospitals are under stress. Schools are closed to protect children from the noxious air.

If the thinking was not muddled, last year’s suspension of sales wouldn’t have come after Diwali — after the horse had bolted, as it were, even if bans were to work. Later, the 2016 order wouldn’t have been relaxed, more so partially just weeks before this Diwali, to be followed days afterward by a reversal.

The three stages of the judicial thinking in respect of curbing pollution around Diwali speaks of an ad hoc response to a very serious problem, although it is hard to disagree with the court’s observation on Monday that there was “direct evidence of deterioration of air quality at alarming levels” due to bursting of firecrackers.

According to ancient tradition Deepawali, the proper name of the famous Hindu festival, is a festival of lights, as the name so amply suggests, not noxious smoke and deafening sound. This aspect is a distortion of the past century. A writer of pulp fiction sought to communalise the muddled judicial thinking by suggesting that the judges could only dare fiddle with Hindu sentiments, not of those of other faiths (implying Muslims, through the analogy he drew). Sorry, but this is not about religion. Hindu sentiment doesn’t choose bad quality air.

Actually, banning sales is a pointless exercise when manufacturing is also not halted. It is impossible to police. Besides, it is easy enough to procure firecrackers just outside NCR limits in neighbouring states such as Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, and bring them across to Delhi. Last year’s orders came after Diwali. We may wonder what the point of that ban was.