Actor Dia Mirza, Bombay high court
“Diwali has been celebrated for the last 5,000 years and will continue to be celebrated for thousands of years.
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has called the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation ’s (BMC) removal of actor Dia Mirza ’s video urging citizens to avoid firecrackers and noise pollution “unfortunate” and asked the civic body to restore it. The HC, while taking up the suo motu PIL, hearing, said it was “disturbed at comments made by certain persons in regard to celebrities who had participated and assisted in public cause”. “The incident which has taken place yesterday, which in our opinion was unfortunate, was without taking into consideration the solemnity of the court orders and the whole intention and object of what was being sought to be achieved by spreading such awareness,” the court said. BJP’s Mumbai unit chief Ameet Satam on Monday linked appeals against the use of firecrackers during Diwali with the “tukde tukde gang”, hours after the civic body removed actor Dia Mirza’s video from its eco-friendly Diwali campaign following an objection raised by him. Members of the ‘tukde tukde’ gang and anti-India forces should not teach us how to celebrate Diwali,” Satam said.
“We would desire that in the event any goodwill message of any celebrity was taken off from the Corporation’s social media, it would be ideal if the same is put back in the spirit of what the Supreme Court observed that the festival is for everybody to celebrate. No person can be isolated from any festival being celebrated in this country,” the court observed. Satam alleged that anti-India forces were attempting to dictate how Hindus should celebrate the festival. We do not need to learn how to celebrate it from anyone.