Cracker Whackers

It’s been going on for some years now. Come Diwali, many schools in urban areas start sermons about pollution and crackers to their students. Some political leaders and Bollymorons join in too along with assorted NGOs and “Miss World” type campaigners. Some schools ask students to write essays on pollution-free Diwali. Some hold elocution contests like “What will you do to have a pollution-free Diwali”? And because the Lutyens Crawlers are right in Delhi some schools specially “tutor” kids to do a song and dance to promote a pollution-free Diwali and the Commie, anti-Hindu media is invited to grab a video and do a show about it as CNN18 does here:

All very nice. Nobody should really have a problem with a “pollution-free-anything” let alone Diwali. But this noble campaign would be nice if it were uniformly done for festivities of all religions. The biggest noises coming out on this are always from Delhi – one of the biggest polluters in the world. You see, these swank campaigners with their fancy SUV trucks will pollute all they like but have problems only with Hindu festivals. That’s the problem. They want cracker-less Diwali, water-less Holi, Rakhee-less Raksha Bandhan, Raavan-less Ram-Leela and so on. They even rant about Karwa Chauth. Multiple fraud-accused scumbags like Teesta Setalvad even want Hindutva banned from public life but are fine with Quran recitals at election campaigns:

Some years back the media used to regularly carry out campaigns about adulterated sweets around Diwali while the same jerks will tour gluttony, muttony areas during Eid to tell us how great the road-side food is. And for a couple of years the focus has shifted to exemplary love for dogs and cats who are offended by crackers. This is never complete unless some Bollymoron sermonises the world about it.

Seems like the only time Anushka Sharma really over-loves animals is when they are chopped, skinned, boiled or roasted or fried and served to her on a plate to gobble up. Come Diwali, she’s worried about her pet and how the world tortures it with crackers during Diwali. There was some other media-moron who likes her meat dripping with blood, so it’s okay when streets are littered with blood from cows and goats slaughtered by her lovable chefs.

This whole “dogs are scared” started with the US. And the US does have a history of “Cracker Whackers”. Now the population of Cracker Whackers is growing in India too. The Americans love firecrackers and come the 4^th of July they light up their skies (and even during Halloween) in most cities and towns with greatest of fireworks:

That’s how the “it scares my pets” thing started in the US and then the Indian “useful idiots” imported it to India. But the Americans who complain may have a genuine cause if you realise they own the highest number of pets in the world:

If you add up dogs and cats in the first image of the statistics above that is around 150 million pets. That figure is for a population of just over 300 million humans in the US. I don’t have any reliable figures for India but could find this article which estimates the figure of Indian pets at about 10 million in 2011. And the US does have other “loud crackers” which claim lives. Guns killed over 13000 people and injured over 26000. All the reports on the statistics hover around these figures for gun-crimes. I am not aware how many dogs were killed or lost their hearing due to firecrackers. Hope someone finds the data on that.

The activist-jerks haven’t stopped at mere public campaigns. They have even petitioned govts and the Supreme Court for a ban on crackers during Diwali. Now, you have to wonder why they want a ban on crackers ONLY during Diwali. Are crackers used only during Diwali? These are used even in weddings and other occasions. The worst offenders are those wedding “Baraats” that burst fire-crackers on public roads with their long procession. They cause nuisance to other users of roads and block traffic. Fantastically, these activist-jerks used “three toddlers” to file the petition in SC. The SC rightly threw it out.

These same activists don’t have a problem with thousands of illegal loudspeakers that serve as alarm-clocks to the local population early mornings. Of course, these are from the “peaceful” lot and the activists are scared to their nuts for their lives against them as are the politicians. Not to be left behind, ModiSarkar’s “MyGov” also issued advisories for a pollution-free Diwali. I don’t think the morons behind this account even realise the irony behind their well-intentioned nonsense:

Respiratory diseases. Injury to body parts. Impairment of hearing. Distress to animals. And, of course, polluting the environment. Most politicians and Babus aren’t very bright, just as most journalists are not. The BJP would do well to look inward and look at its own stupidity in doling out such sermons. Because there is no political party in this country that does not use a heavy number of fire-crackers to celebrate election victories or to even welcome their leader back from a hospital-treatment or from jail. Bollywood too does that (remember Sanjay Dutt or Salman Khan returning?). Here are BJP folks celebrating something smoky:

Well, that looks like a major victory in a State election or national election. Doesn’t it? Hold your breath – That kind of smoky-celebration is for a paltry “by poll” victory in a town called Maihar. What stops the GOI asking all political parties to first stop using crackers for election wins? Nothing! But as with frivolous dog-protectors and “Miss World” type activists they sermonise people only on Diwali about it. As the SC put it in the report I quoted earlier, people cannot be stopped celebrating their festivities with crackers as long as they do it sensibly and without harming others or the public in general. The best way to handle this is to make sure crackers are used responsibly especially with young children and also not near hospitals or old-age homes etc. Maybe a statutory warning “Children below 12 should not use firecrackers without parental supervision” or something like that would be more helpful than mindless rants against Diwali-crackers. There is a flip side to all this that no one even talks about. I received this beautiful Diwali greeting from a friend on Whatsapp:

It escapes general notice but people may have reduced usage of printed greeting cards in large numbers. So maybe tell them how many trees we may have saved. Cracker use in Diwali has also reduced to a good extent and is now done more responsibly. But Diwali without the sound of crackers and sparklers and “Diyas” and lights would be bizarre. So, celebrate with greater joy and enthusiasm. A HAPPY DIWALI to all … regardless of the Cracker Whackers.