Hindus’ anger on SC activism behind milder cracker curbs?

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 23

By modifying its last order and relaxing restrictions, the Supreme Court appears to have taken into cognisance the prevailing anger in the majority community over its “activism”.

Hindu groups had perceived its last year’s ban on selling firecrackers during Diwali as an “attack on Hinduism”, questioning why similar restrictions were not imposed in connection with festivals of other religions.

Recently, RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat had also gone public with his disdain of the apex court’s Sabarimala verdict to make his point. Making his Vijayadashmi address to Sangh cadres at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, he said the verdict had not taken into consideration the “nature and premise of the tradition”, leading to "divisiveness" in society.

“Questions such as why only the Hindu society experiences such repeated and brazen onslaughts on its symbols of faith arise in the public's mind and lead to unrest," Bhagwat said. “The situation arising out of the recent verdict on Sabarimala temple shows a similar predicament... The version of heads of religious denominations and faith of crores of devotees was not taken into account,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court permission to the sale and manufacture of low-emission “green” firecrackers led to quite a bustle over the social media on what exactly “green crackers” were.