In a city where a cockroach has become an unlikely symbol of political dissent, the insect is set to find another, rather different role this Dussehra: a 30-foot effigy that will go up in flames alongside Ravan, Kumbhkaran and Meghnad at a Ramlila in Pitampura.
The Shree Keshav Ram Leela Committee, which organises the annual event in northwest Delhi, says the cockroach represents filth and dirt. Its burning, the committee maintains, is intended to reinforce the message of cleanliness and the triumph of good over evil, as part of the Swachh Bharat and Swachh Delhi campaigns. But the announcement arrives at a politically charged moment for the capital, with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leading protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls.
Ashok Goel, the committee’s president and a BJP MLA, has denied that the decision to include the insect in the effigy-burning ceremony has any political motivation. He said the cockroach would also feature among the demons in Ravan’s army. The symbolism, however, is difficult to separate from the political moment.
The CJP, whose name turns the familiar household pest into a political identity, has returned to Delhi’s streets after an earlier agitation over alleged irregularities in competitive examinations.
The group staged a protest at Jantar Mantar through June and July and marched towards Parliament on July 20. Its campaign targeted then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the examination controversy. Pradhan subsequently resigned, although the protest alone does not establish the circumstances behind his departure. The CJP has since shifted its focus to the Election Commission. It has demanded Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, drawing support from opposition parties and student organisations.
The demonstrations have also brought confrontations with the police. Several activists, students and journalists were detained during the recent protests, while restrictions around central Delhi disrupted public movement.
The dispute has continued beyond the streets. On Thursday, the Delhi High Court declined to stop a CJP gathering planned at Connaught Place’s Central Park for October 16. The court recorded the Delhi Police’s assurance that it would take lawful steps to regulate the event. The proposed gathering follows the detention of CJP activists Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka in connection with a protest at Jantar Mantar.
The legal challenge had been brought by a Palika Bazar vendor who argued that demonstrations and associated traffic restrictions could hurt access to the market and affect the livelihoods of small traders. The court’s decision leaves the planned gathering to proceed subject to police regulation.
Against this backdrop, the Pitampura committee’s explanation is straightforward: the effigy is about sanitation, not the CJP.
Goel has presented it as an addition to the traditional Dussehra ritual, in which effigies of Ravan and his allies are burnt to mark the victory of good over evil.
Whether audiences see the cockroach simply as a symbol of dirt or read a political meaning into its presence is another matter. In Delhi this year, the insect already carries a public identity far removed from the kitchen and the drain. At Pitampura, it will now join Ravan’s army before meeting the same fiery end.