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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 ray of hope for TAIT aspirants

Writer: Vinod Chavan
Vinod Chavan
Oct 13, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

After several years of long waiting, the Maharashtra government initiated teachers’ recruitment through the Pavitra Portal. In 2022, Teacher Aptitude and Intelligence Tests (TAIT) was conducted, clearing the path for teachers recruitment. Despite the TAIT results being announced, eligible teachers had to wait nearly two years for their appointments. Finally, in 2024, many teachers were appointed to Zilla Parishad, Municipal Corporations, and Municipal Council schools without interviews, while others were appointed through the converted round and interviews via the Pavitra Portal. These teachers are now working, and their salaries have started regularly.


However, for those teachers who prioritized applying to the prestigious Rayat Shikshan Sanstha in the first round without an interview, the wait continues. Six months have passed, and despite being selected on merit, they have not yet received their appointments.


The Rayat Shikshan Sanstha, founded by Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil to uplift underprivileged students, became the institution of choice for many aspiring teachers, inspired by its noble mission. These teachers, having passed the TAIT with flying colors, hoped to carry forward Bhaurao Patil’s legacy. Yet, their dream has turned into frustration as, despite being selected, they remain unappointed.


For the past six months, these teachers have been running from pillar to post, visiting the Education Commissioner and Rayat Shikshan Sanstha Office, seeking appointments. Their pleas have been met with silence. Even when they approached prominent leaders like MP Supriya Sule and MLA Rohit Pawar, hoping for intervention, nothing substantial materialized.


The delay stems from a legal stay on appointments following a petition filed by temporary teachers of the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha. But why should the TAIT-qualified teachers, who have passed exams after intense preparation, suffer for no fault of their own? Repeated assurances to ‘remain patience’ have done little to ease their frustration. Despite meeting legislators, Members of Parliament, and various district leaders, no concrete action has been taken to address their plight.


Currently, 801 teachers who preferred Rayat Shikshan Sanstha through the Pavitra Portal are still awaiting appointments. Even though the institution is led by Sharad Pawar, a leader known for resolving complex issues, these teachers have been unable to meet him despite several attempts. Many of them have expressed their disappointment, stating that even though the government’s decision to recruit teachers through the Pavitra Portal brought them joy, the prolonged delay in appointments has caused them much headache.


The legal battle continues, and the teachers are caught in the dilemma. They question why the Education Commissioner’s office listed vacancies in Rayat Shikshan Sanstha on the Pavitra Portal if the institution was already embroiled in legal issues. If these vacancies hadn’t been listed, the teachers might have opted for other institutions.


In a final act of desperation, these teachers had resorted to staging a hunger strike outside the Education Commissioner’s office, demanding swift action. While the police tried to suppress the protest, the teachers stood firm, vowing not to relent until their demands were met. In response, the Education Commissioner issued a letter promising that the unappointed Rayat teachers would be adjusted into other institutions by the end of October. Now, these teachers wait with bated breath, hoping that the promise is kept.


(The author is a teacher based in Latur. Views personal.)

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