As the post-Diwali haze continues to choke Delhi and Mumbai, Mira Rajput Kapoor has made a powerful appeal to stop bursting firecrackers and stop calling it “tradition”.
The influencer and wife of actor Shahid Kapoor took to Instagram on Tuesday night, expressing frustration over how people still justify firecrackers during Diwali even as the air turns unbreathable.
“Why are we still bursting crackers?” Mira asked. “It’s not okay even if it’s ‘just for the kids to see once’ or ‘we’re only doing it this year for fun.’ Neither is it okay for your pataka aesthetic to hold a phuljhadi just for Instagram. Let’s stop normalising this.”
She went on to say that such excuses only pass down bad habits to children, adding, “If we normalise it, so will our kids and this will never stop. ‘Say no to crackers’ cannot be a slogan for Earth Day and forgotten by Diwali. The AQI news isn’t just for your next story; it’s the air your children breathe.”
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“This is not a tradition I wish to indulge in,” she wrote. “And what’s sad is that despite the privilege, education, awareness, and affluence, what is lacking is common sense. So no, I won’t send my kids to watch while you’ll have some cracker fun. Please stop.”
Her words came at a time when both Delhi and Mumbai are facing severe pollution levels. On Wednesday morning, Mumbai’s Bandra area saw a blanket of thick smog, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) touching 300, a level considered poor. Delhi’s AQI wasn’t much better fluctuating between 201 and 300 in recent days.
Every year, Diwali celebrations across India are followed by a visible decline in air quality, with smoke from fireworks combining with winter fog to create dangerous smog layers. Doctors and environmentalists repeatedly warn about the impact of this pollution on respiratory health, especially for children and the elderly.