AAP Seeks FIR Over Burning of Cockroach Effigy

AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj filed a complaint on October 20 seeking a police case over the burning of a cockroach effigy at a Ramlila event in Pitampura, escalating a dispute over the display’s meaning and its place alongside traditional festival effigies. Bharadwaj sent the complaint to the Lieutenant Governor and the Delhi Police Commissioner. He sought registration of a first information report against the Shri Keshav Ramlila Committee organisers, Delhi minister and committee member Kapil Mishra, and others involved in the event. Bharadwaj argued that burning the cockroach effigy alongside traditional Ramlila figures had hurt religious sentiments. The organisers said the effigy was intended to raise awareness about filth and related health problems. The accounts described it as a 30-foot display that was set alight during the event on Tuesday evening. The competing explanations have become the focus of a political exchange, with the complaint seeking legal action and the organisers defending the display’s stated public-health purpose. On Wednesday, Congress leader Udit Raj and BJP national spokesperson R.P. Singh alleged that the Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, was...