Police action shows BJP on back foot, its propaganda exposed: AAP's Saurabh Bharadwaj

New Delhi, Dec 25 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday said the FIR against its Delhi chief Saurabh Bharadwaj and two other party leaders over a Christmas skit proved that the BJP was on the back foot over the pollution issue and the "Sanghi propaganda" now stands exposed.

A complaint was filed alleging that the skit by the AAP in November outraged the religious feelings of the Christian community as Santa Claus was a "revered religious and cultural icon." Burari MLA Sanjeev Jha and AAP leader Adil Ahmad Khan were the other two AAP leaders booked in the case.

Bharadwaj took to X, alleging that the BJP was on the back foot on the pollution issue and the issue of Aravallis, so its workers were posing as Christians and feigning hurt to religious sentiments.

The complaint, submitted by advocate Khushboo George, alleged that the three leaders uploaded videos of a political skit shot in Connaught Place on their official social media handles on December 17 and 18.

Hitting back at the BJP, Bharadwaj said the FIR was the result of the power of social media.

"An FIR has been filed against Santa Claus's skit. Thanks to social media and your collective strength, the BJP is quite worried today. This is the power of social media that the BJP government is being forced to respond to pollution, and there's discussion happening on AQI," he said in a post on Hindi on X.

Bharadwaj said that through Santa Claus's skit, they took the pollution issue to the masses.

"This is the power of social media that the government has been put on the back foot over the Aravalli mountain range," he wrote.

The AAP leader said that the BJP was on the defensive on the Kuldeep Singh Sengar case and the Ankita Bhandari case from Uttarakhand also.

"Now, there's a round of intimidation, threats, ED, CBI, and Delhi Police FIRs underway. The Sanghis' propaganda is now being exposed, so they're scared. We still need to expose them more and scare them even further," he said.

"When Santa Claus's caps were yanked off in Lajpat Nagar, Delhi, they were threatened and chased away with abuses, but then no BJP Christian worker's religious sentiments were hurt," he said.

On the complaint against him, Bharadwaj said people whose religious sentiments were hurt were the same people who are frequently associated with the BJP.

In his retort, Delhi BJP Spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said what difference it made whether the complainant was a BJP sympathiser.

On November 17, Bharadwaj posted a video on X in which he is heard announcing that the Air Quality Index (AQI) at Connaught Place had touched 376.

Moments after the remark, the clip shows a man dressed as Santa Claus dramatically collapsing to the ground as passers-by look on.

Reacting to the scene, Bharadwaj is heard quipping in Hindi, "Oh my God, 376 sunke Santa behosh ho gaye (Santa fainted hearing that the AQI has hit 376)." PTI SLB VN VN