The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has removed actor Diya Mirza’s video appeal asking Mumbai residents not to burst firecrackers during Diwali, after criticism from leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena. Videos featuring other public figures, including actor Madhuri Dixit Nene, remain available on the civic body’s social media accounts, according to a report by Navbharat Times – Mumbai.
The videos were posted after directions from the Bombay High Court, which had asked the BMC to run a public awareness campaign on pollution and involve well-known personalities. The campaign messages urged residents to avoid firecrackers and reduce sound pollution during the festival.
The court’s directions came against the backdrop of continuing firecracker use in Mumbai despite restrictions on bursting crackers in public places and parks, as reported by the publication. The BMC was criticised by the court over the city’s pollution levels and was instructed to use public communication to improve awareness.
Following the campaign, Mumbai BJP president Amit Satam objected to Mirza’s video. In a post tagging the BMC on X, Satam said residents did not need to learn from Mirza how Diwali should be celebrated and argued that festival traditions were deeply rooted in Indian culture.
Shaina NC, a Shiv Sena spokesperson, also criticised the appeal in comments to ANI. She said Diwali was a festival of lights and argued that Mumbai residents did not need to be taught by others how to observe it. At the same time, she said nobody was advocating pollution and that the issue required introspection.
The dispute places the BMC’s campaign between two competing public messages: the civic administration’s responsibility to address air and noise pollution, and political objections that restrictions or appeals against firecrackers could be seen as interference with religious and cultural practices. The removal of one video, while other celebrity messages continued to be available, has made the civic body’s communication strategy itself part of the controversy.
Union minister Ramdas Athawale also commented on the issue. According to the report, he said festivals were protected by the Constitution and that communities respected one another’s celebrations. He also acknowledged the need to consider excessive pollution, while arguing that a Diwali without firecrackers could reduce the festival’s significance.
The episode highlights the administrative challenge of implementing court-backed pollution awareness measures during a major festival. For the BMC, the campaign was not only a social media exercise but part of a wider obligation to communicate restrictions and public health concerns after the High Court’s intervention. The civic body has not, in the supplied report, publicly explained why Mirza’s video was removed while the other campaign videos remained online.
