New Delhi: In addition to Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghnad, at least 650 effigies of those who have criticised the sanatana dharma will reportedly be burnt on Dussehra (October 24).The move has come in response to Tamil actor and politician Udhayanidhi Stalin’s criticism of sanatana dharma last month as “a principle that divides people in the name of caste and religion” the Indian Express reported.“While statues of the epic villains will be 80 ft to 100 ft tall, those of the Sanatan Dharma Vidrohi, ie opponents of sanatana dharma, will be small, between 6 and 15 ft, to show how insignificant they are,” Arjun Kumar, president of Shree Ramleela Mahasangh, the umbrella body of Ramleela organisers in Delhi, told the Indian Express. He failed to mention why so many effigies were going to be built, paid for and set on fire if the critics were in fact insignificant.The Ramleela apex body was asked by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to draw attention towards an alleged ‘anti-sanatana dharma campaign’ being run by some political leaders.On September 23, under instructions from Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, regional party spokesperson and media head Praveen Shankar Kapoor sent a letter appealing to Ramleela committees referring to “the anti-Sanatan Dharma campaign being run by several political leaders, including Udhayanidhi Stalin of Tamil Nadu, Swami Prasad Maurya of UP and Rajendra Pal Gautam of Delhi”.Impact on air qualityEffigies burnt on Dussehra are typically made of iron mesh, bamboo, paper and are stuffed with firecrackers. Every year, Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) worsens after Ravana effigies are burnt as part of festive celebrations.In 2020, the concentration of pollutants (PM2.5, PM10) doubled at five monitoring stations – Patparganj, India Gate, Dwarka, Najafgarh and Mundka – hours after the effigy burning began. Officials, at the time, had clarified that firecrackers were the only additional air pollution source that was added to Delhi after 6 pm on the day of the festival. Delhi’s AQI deteriorated soon after Ravana effigies were burnt in 2019 as well, officials had said.In 2021, on the day of the festival, PM 10 was at 96 micrograms per cubic metre at the monitoring station in Dwarka at 6 pm and increased to 950 micrograms per cubic metre by 10 pm, India Today had reported.In RK Puram, the PM 10 levels was 332 micrograms per cubic metre at 9 pm, which was double the levels before sunset, the report said.Despite the drastic increase in pollutant levels, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had thanked Ramleela committees for ensuring that less crackers were used since the AQI on Dussehra in 2021 was the lowest compared to the previous years.
