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By:

Rajendra Pandharpure

15 April 2025 at 7:55:54 pm

The BJP’s Ganesha Gambit

Pune’s Ganeshotsav has become an enormous civic and political stage, and the ruling party has proved adept at occupying it. Pune: The city’s Ganeshotsav is entering its final phase, but the festival has already demonstrated something beyond its extraordinary crowds and familiar spectacle: the extent to which it has become a political stage. This year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has left a particularly visible imprint on the festivities, using an event that reaches deep into the city’s...

The BJP’s Ganesha Gambit

Pune’s Ganeshotsav has become an enormous civic and political stage, and the ruling party has proved adept at occupying it. Pune: The city’s Ganeshotsav is entering its final phase, but the festival has already demonstrated something beyond its extraordinary crowds and familiar spectacle: the extent to which it has become a political stage. This year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has left a particularly visible imprint on the festivities, using an event that reaches deep into the city’s neighbourhoods as an opportunity for public outreach. The political appropriation of the festival has not, however, been without a counter-current. Demands were raised for curbs on noise pollution, loudspeakers and the volume of dhol-tasha performances. The argument was not against Ganeshotsav itself, but for moderation - notably, a complete ban on DJ music and limits on the number of dhol and tasha instruments used by performing troupes. Familiar Troubles The festival’s reality has been rather different. Major roads have been occupied by mandaps. Processions celebrating the arrival of Lord Ganesha have unfolded amid punishing noise. DJ music, while subject to restrictions, has continued. Traffic congestion has become a familiar feature of the festival, with the movement of political leaders adding another layer to the city’s already strained roads. The Peth areas have remained crowded deep into the night. The Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati temple has drawn enormous crowds for darshan from the opening day. From the old city to housing societies and neighbourhood mandals, Ganeshotsav touches virtually every part of Pune. For a political party seeking a direct connection with citizens, few occasions offer such a ready-made network of people, institutions and local influencers. The BJP enters this festival with an unusually formidable organisational base. It has two MPs, seven MLAs and more than 100 corporators in Pune. Murlidhar Mohol, one of the city’s MPs, is a Union Minister of State. Chandrakant Patil is a Cabinet minister in the Maharashtra government, while Madhuri Misal is a Minister of State. The party’s presence also extends into the festival’s organisational architecture. Its influence is visible across numerous mandals, large and small. BJP MLA Hemant Rasane is General Secretary of the Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Sarvajanik Ganpati Trust. Kunal Tilak, a member of Lokmanya Tilak’s family, is a BJP corporator. The political and cultural histories of Pune therefore intersect in ways that are difficult to ignore. The BJP’s senior leadership has also made the most of the occasion. National President Nitin Nabin visited Pune to seek Lord Ganesha’s blessings, while Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited the city before and during the festival. Such visits are about more than religious observance. In a festival watched by millions and embedded in the city’s social life, political visibility comes almost automatically. There is also talk in Pune that the BJP provided substantial financial support to Dhol-Lezim troupes and their organisers, with claims that some major mandals received financial backing as well. These claims would require independent verification, but the perception itself points to the depth of the political contest around Ganeshotsav. BJP workers, according to local observers, have also sought to make their presence more conspicuous than that of festivities organised by housing societies. Useful Expedient The festival arrives at a politically useful moment for the BJP. The party has faced disquiet on several fronts. Young people have been agitated over the paper-leak controversy. Broader public dissatisfaction has been voiced over inflation and unemployment, while government policies relating to ethanol and charges associated with UPI transactions have also generated criticism. While a political party can defend a policy in a press conference and advertise its achievements, during Ganeshotsav, its workers can be physically present in neighbourhoods, among processions, mandals, cultural groups and devotees. Politics thus becomes less about argument and more about visibility. That is the BJP’s advantage in Pune. Ganeshotsav, after all, is not simply a sequence of religious rituals. It is an elaborate civic network involving local organisers, volunteers, cultural groups, businesses, residents and political representatives. Whoever has influence over that network acquires a powerful channel of communication with the city. The BJP appears to understand this particularly well. Its strength in Pune’s electoral politics has been reinforced by a presence that extends beyond elections and into the institutions and social spaces that organise public life. The irony is that the very scale of the festival that makes it politically attractive also magnifies the civic costs. The political value of Ganeshotsav and the civic burden it creates are therefore two sides of the same phenomenon. For Pune, the larger question is not whether politics has entered Ganeshotsav. It has done so for decades. The more consequential question is whether the festival’s extraordinary social capital will remain primarily a vehicle for political outreach or whether the same influence can be used to reconcile celebration with the ordinary civic needs of the city. For the moment, the BJP seems to have understood the first proposition better than most.

A Border in Flames

Correspondent
Jan 27, 2025
3 min read

Updated: Jan 29, 2025

Despite years of counterinsurgency efforts, the endless struggle against ISWAP in northeastern Nigeria has ensured the country remains a war zone with soldiers and civilians alike caught in the crossfire.

Nigeria

Fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) recently attacked a Nigerian Army base in Malam-Fatori, a border town in Borno State, killing more than 20 soldiers, including a commanding officer, and wounding several others after a three-hour gun battle. The town, already a tenuous link between Nigeria and its northern neighbour, has once again become a symbol of the Nigerian military’s precarious position in the battle against insurgency.


This tragic episode is but one chapter in a protracted and brutal conflict that has gripped northeastern Nigeria for over a decade. The region has become a cauldron of violence, where groups like ISWAP and Boko Haram operate with near impunity, targeting soldiers and civilians alike. Since Boko Haram’s emergence in 2009, the insurgency has morphed into a hydra-headed monster. The splintering of the group into factions, most notably ISWAP, has intensified the bloodshed. Together, these groups have killed and displaced tens of thousands, transforming Borno into a theater of horror.


Historically, Borno’s troubles are rooted in more than the rise of extremist ideologies. This region has long been one of Nigeria’s most economically and politically marginalized. Decades of underdevelopment, weak state institutions, and endemic corruption created a fertile ground for discontent. When Boko Haram first appeared under the leadership of Mohammed Yusuf, it gained traction by exploiting grievances over poverty, unemployment, and poor governance. What began as a movement ostensibly advocating for Islamic governance quickly devolved into an insurgency marked by atrocities: mass abductions, bombings, and targeted killings.


The Nigerian government’s response to this crisis has been both forceful and faltering. Former President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno and neighbouring states in 2013, launching a military offensive against Boko Haram. While the group suffered initial losses, it regrouped and intensified its attacks. By 2015, Boko Haram had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, leading to the creation of ISWAP. Unlike its predecessor, ISWAP has adopted a more sophisticated and pragmatic approach, focusing its attacks on military and government targets while presenting itself as a provider of services in areas under its control. This shift has made it an even deadlier adversary.


Under President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military general elected in 2015 partly on his promise to crush the insurgency, there have been some gains. The Nigerian military, backed by regional forces and international partners, has reclaimed territory once held by Boko Haram and ISWAP. Yet, the insurgency has proven resilient. The recent attack in Malam-Fatori underscores the challenges that remain. ISWAP’s ability to mount a coordinated assault on a military base demonstrates not only its tactical capabilities but also the weaknesses in Nigeria’s counterinsurgency strategy.


At the heart of the problem is a lack of trust between the military and local communities. Reports of human rights abuses by security forces, ranging from extrajudicial killings to forced disappearances, have alienated the very people whose cooperation is essential for effective counterinsurgency. Moreover, corruption within the military has siphoned resources away from the frontlines, leaving soldiers ill-equipped and demoralized.


The international community has lent its support, but its involvement has been limited. While the United States and other nations have provided military aid and training, the broader geopolitical focus has often shifted away from Nigeria’s crisis. As global attention gravitates toward flashpoints like Ukraine and the Middle East, northeastern Nigeria risks becoming a forgotten conflict.


The implications of this neglect are dire. The insurgency in Borno is not an isolated issue but part of a broader instability across the Sahel region. Groups like ISWAP are adept at exploiting porous borders and weak governance to expand their reach. Without sustained local and international efforts to address the root causes of extremism, Nigeria’s northeast will remain trapped in a cycle of violence.

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