India, Oct. 21 -- The Delhi government on Tuesday dismissed claims that Diwali fireworks led to the city's pollution, accusing those making the link of being "admirers of Aurangzeb and Akbar" with vested interests.

Lashing out at AAP for crticising the Delhi government's handling of pollution in the national capital, Delhi's environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said that the party was deliberately bringing Diwali, Sanatana Dharma, and Hinduism into the picture.

"This isn't the BJP's festival. It's a Sanatan Hindu festival, and why are you cursing the festival? Why are you using words against the festival? But to say that BJP is celebrating Diwali, to say that BJP is bursting crackers like this, to say that BJP is doing such wrong ...