The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to re-upload the public awareness video of actor Dia Mirza that urged citizens not to burst firecrackers on public roads during Diwali.

She had uploaded the video on the court’s earlier directions aimed at curbing pollution.

A division bench of Justice Girish Kulkarni and Justice Dr Neela Gokhale expressed strong displeasure over remarks made by certain political leaders against the actor for participating in the awareness campaign.

The court also reiterated that India is a secular country and emphasised the importance of following judicial directions issued in the public interest.

The BMC had enlisted Dia Mirza as part of its Diwali awareness drive to sensitise citizens about air pollution and compliance with court-imposed restrictions on bursting firecrackers in public spaces. However, the civic body removed the video from its social media platforms after objections were raised by BJP leaders, including Mumbai BJP chief Ameet Satam and BMC Mayor Ritu Tawde.

Tawde had criticised Mirza’s appeal, alleging that her opposition was consistently directed against Hindutva and those associated with it. She argued that Hindus did not require lessons on how to celebrate Diwali and accused the actor of pursuing a selective agenda.

Responding to the controversy, Dia Mirza defended the video, saying it was recorded on the directions of the Bombay High Court and was intended to promote public awareness about air pollution.

“Diwali celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance and hope over despair. The video was recorded in the interest of public awareness, with the intention of encouraging a healthier and more mindful celebration. Air pollution is a matter of public health, and every effort towards reducing it is a step towards a better environment for all,” Mirza told media on Monday.

The BMC’s Diwali campaign featured several public figures, including actor Madhuri Dixit and cricketer Ajinkya Rahane, advocating environmentally responsible celebrations. However, objections were raised to Mirza’s participation, with critics questioning the involvement of celebrities in advising the public on festival practices.

A Level-I fire broke out at a timber warehouse on Anand Road in the Malad West area of Mumbai on Monday night, prompting the mobilisation of fire brigade personnel and civic officials. No injuries have been reported in the incident, officials said.

According to the Mumbai Fire Service, the fire was reported at around 9 p.m. at the Ruiya timber warehouse.

The blaze was confined to wooden planks, cardboard stock and other materials stored on the ground floor of a ground-plus-two-storey (G+2) structure.

Following the alert, teams from the Mumbai Fire Brigade, police and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) rushed to the spot and initiated firefighting and other emergency measures.

The fire was classified as Level-I, indicating a relatively minor fire incident. No injuries have been reported so far, the Mumbai Fire Service said.

The incident comes against the backdrop of another major fire at a scrap godown in Mumbai’s Saki Naka area in October, which claimed two lives and left four others with burn injuries.

The fire had broken out at a scrap godown in Abdul Rashid Compound in Saki Naka, Andheri East. The Mumbai Fire Brigade received a call about the blaze at around 6.18 p.m. on a Tuesday and subsequently classified it as a Level-II fire.

The injured were rushed to the civic-run Rajawadi Hospital for treatment. One of them had suffered 80 per cent burns, while the identities of the two deceased persons had not been established at the time.

The four injured individuals were identified as Taufiq Shadil Qureshi, 20, who sustained 80 per cent burns; Jahid Abidulla Qureshi, 20, and Kamal Jalauddin Shah, 47, who both suffered 40 per cent burns; and Lalchand Ramlakhan Gautam, 40, who sustained 10 per cent burns.

A senior Mumbai Fire Brigade officer had said that the circumstances surrounding the incident remained unclear, with preliminary investigations unable to establish the exact cause or point of origin of the fire.

Officials had said that the flames spread rapidly due to the large quantity of scrap material stored at the premises, which also made firefighting operations challenging. The fire was eventually brought under control after sustained efforts by the fire brigade.

In a critique of the ruling establishment, the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray on Tuesday declared that a major political revolution is underway following the opposition-led ‘Chalo Delhi’ rally at Delhi’s historic Ramlila Maidan.

The Thackeray camp, in an editorial in the party’s mouthpiece, ‘Saamana’, asserted that the “roaring turnout has shaken the foundational walls of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah’s administration”. The rally, organised to protest alleged large-scale electoral malpractices, voter list manipulations, and what the opposition terms a systematic “vote-theft project”, brought together leaders from across the INDIA bloc.

The Thackeray camp led a fierce assault on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, arguing that allegations surrounding voter list discrepancies are no longer merely opposition rhetoric, but stem directly from public disclosures made by sitting election commissioners.

“Vote-theft has now become a national slogan; it is the declaration of the people. Scams in the voter lists, the deletion of crores of voters’ names, and working to assist Modi and Shah under the guise of SIR do not constitute anarchy. On the contrary, this is a people’s rebellion against the terrible situation created by Modi, Shah, and Gyanesh Kumar,” said the editorial.

Accusing CEC Gyanesh Kumar of acting as a “protective shield” for the Central government, the editorial claimed that institutional bias is being used to shield the top leadership from accountability. Despite heavy police deployment, multi-layered barricading, and government attempts to stall incoming demonstrators, Delhi’s arterial roads witnessed massive vehicular and pedestrian congestion. While Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders attempted to downplay the turnout as a minor gathering of a few thousand, observers noted that hundreds of thousands assembled at Ramlila Maidan.

The editorial highlighted that the fervour and public outrage witnessed over the weekend rivalled Jayaprakash Narayan’s historic pro-democracy and anti-corruption crusade launched from the same ground on June 25, 1975.

“Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi stated that the Modi-Shah leadership lost its moral mandate in the 2024 general elections and was only sustained in office through administrative and institutional assistance. Vowing legal recourse, Gandhi declared that institutional figures complicit in electoral malpractices would eventually face strict judicial accountability,” the editorial said.

“The central leadership strongly repudiated the mobilisation. Home Minister Amit Shah characterised the ‘Chalo Delhi’ call as an invitation to political anarchy and defended the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, arguing that the opposition was attempting to shield illegal foreign infiltrators,” noted the editorial. It further added that Prime Minister Modi accused opposition leaders of attempting to divide the nation for short-term political gains.

The Thackeray faction countered the Home Minister’s defence, pointing out the absurdity of labelling millions of deleted Indian voters across multiple states as foreign national infiltrators.

In conclusion, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena asserted that the “roar for regime change” that echoed from Ramlila Maidan in 1975 has now been surpassed by an even louder demand for democratic restoration. Framing the rally as a decisive turning point, the party maintained that the momentum generated in the national capital marks the beginning of an unyielding national movement to restore constitutional integrity and hold the current establishment accountable.