Bengaluru : Karnataka IPS officer D Roopa was trolled on social media after she supported the ban on firecrackers. In a Facebook post, she had written that bursting firecrackers on Diwali is not a Hindu tradition and that there is no mention of crackers in epics and puranas.

Citing the impact of bursting crackers on people’s health, and air pollution levels as well as its effect on Bengaluru’s green cover, she wrote on Facebook, ‘For those who cry victim that this is done to Hindus, well, crackers were not there during early and later Vedic age; there is no mention of crackers in our epics and Puranas.

Crackers came into this country with Europeans. It is no core tradition or custom related to Hinduism.’

Following this, several Twitter users asked her whether she would question the customs of other religions as well.

The Twitter handle ‘True Indology’ claimed that crackers have been mentioned in ancient scriptures of India. Roopa refuted the claim and asked True Indology for evidence to support what it said. Hours later, the ‘True Indology’ handle was suspended.

Several Twitter users including actor Kangana Ranaut protested the suspension of ‘True Indology’ handle, questioning the social media platform’s abrupt move. Ranaut claimed that officer Roopa ‘became so vengeful that if she couldn’t win the arguments with facts she simply got @TIinExile eliminated’. Following this, #BringBackTrueIndology started trending on Twitter.

In response to those ‘questioning her silence,’ D Rupa on Wednesday tweeted that ‘there’s a life beyond Twitter.’ ‘And as a Govt official,I will first say follow Laws,Rules made by elected legislature, enforced by executive. U r free to question them in judiciary. Not twitter. Have respect for 3 pillars of State as envisaged by Constitution of this democratic country. For disseminating info abt an Order of Govt, a decision taken at highest level (not my personal opinion/order) u try to silence an official. For what? Do u expect me to say don’t follow govt order? Sorry folks,that’s not going to happen,’ she tweeted.

Several states had imposed partial and complete bans of firecrackers this Diwali in view of the Covid-19 situation. Besides Delhi, which has been grappling with high pollution levels for the past few years, many other states including Karnataka, West Bengal, Sikkim, Odisha, have put a bar on the use of crackers to rule out any potential risk of spreading of virus or creating difficulties for those who have already been battling the disease.