Soni Razdan shuts down religion angle in firecracker row

Soni Razdan is drawing a firm line this Diwali week: a clean-air message is not a religious debate. The veteran actor spent Thursday responding to a social-media user who tied her anti-cracker stand to her son-in-law Ranbir Kapoor’s role as Lord Ram in Ramayana.

The troll’s argument was that Ranbir plays Ram, whose return to Ayodhya is marked by Diwali, so Razdan’s position seemed contradictory. Razdan did not engage on those terms.

It’s about air, not faith

She wrote back that the user could not see “the wood for the trees,” and argued that the genuine anti-national act is contributing to terrible air pollution. Her follow-up was even simpler:

“It’s about air. And children are struggling.”

She added that people were missing a straightforward public-health point because they insisted on viewing every statement through a religious lens.

Where the row comes from

Razdan’s replies follow her support for Dia Mirza’s Diwali awareness video for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The video urged responsible celebration, but was pulled after objections from BJP leaders. The Bombay High Court then took suo motu cognisance — meaning it acted on its own initiative, without waiting for a formal petition — and directed the civic body to restore the clip.

That institutional turn is why this is more than a passing celebrity spat. A public-health message was first politicised, then corrected by a court.

This exchange also shows how easily a family member’s on-screen role becomes ammunition. Ranbir’s casting in Ramayana is a professional milestone, not a political platform, and dragging it into a health discussion muddies both.

What every fan can see in this

Razdan’s original position wasn’t hidden. She had written that bursting crackers shouldn’t be treated as a test of nationalism, and that putting a whole community’s health at risk for a few moments of personal pleasure is a more relevant use of the term “anti-national.”

The argument runs on three simple rails:

• Air pollution does not care which faith you follow.
• Children are already the worst hit, with illness and missed school days.
• Collective responsibility matters more than winning a social-media exchange.

For Hindi film fans, the useful takeaway is to let Diwali stay joyful while keeping the focus on breathable air. The court’s push to restore the BMC clip is a small nudge in that direction.

Source: India Today