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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.

Aamir Should Not Be A Role Model

Riya Dubey
Jun 6
2 min read

Aamir Khan is undoubtedly one of the most influential actors in Indian cinema, with a career filled with landmark films and a reputation for perfectionism in his craft. However, the growing debate around whether he should be considered a “role model” for youngsters is not just about films – it is about the gap between public image and personal life, and how that gap is now being judged in the social media era.


A role model is not just someone who succeeds professionally, but someone whose life choices are seen as stable, consistent, and worth emulating. This is where the criticism begins. Over the years, Aamir Khan has often spoken in interviews about love, relationships, and personal values in a way that projects certainty and conviction. However, his real-life decisions, particularly around relationships and marriages, have often appeared to shift over time, leading critics to question that consistency.


Whether it is his multiple marriages or the way his personal relationships have played out in the public eye, these events have ensured that his private life remains under constant scrutiny. In today’s digital world, every public statement and every personal development is archived, compared, and debated. As a result, any perceived contradiction between what is said publicly and what unfolds privately quickly becomes fuel for criticism and trolling.


This is why the backlash he faces online is not entirely random. It comes from a section of users who feel that when a public figure builds a strong moral or disciplined image, there is an expectation of alignment between that image and real-life behaviour. When that alignment appears weak or inconsistent, disappointment often turns into ridicule, especially on social media platforms where nuance is usually lost.


There is also a broader cultural expectation at play in India, where film stars are often treated as more than entertainers. They are seen as lifestyle icons, moral examples, and in some cases even informal influencers of youth behaviour. In such a context, any perceived inconsistency in a celebrity’s personal life is magnified far more than it might be in other entertainment industries globally.


At the same time, the discussion also exposes a double standard in public perception. While audiences admire celebrities for their success, discipline, and achievements, they also demand personal perfection, which is rarely realistic for anyone – public figure or not. This tension between admiration and expectation is what makes figures like Aamir Khan frequent subjects of debate.


It is also important to separate professional excellence from personal life. There is no doubt that Aamir Khan’s contribution to Indian cinema is significant, and his films have influenced both audiences and the industry. But being a great actor or filmmaker does not automatically make someone a template for personal life decisions or relationships.


Ultimately, the criticism and trolling he is currently facing reflect a larger question about modern celebrity culture: should public figures be judged as role models based on their professional achievements, or should their personal lives also meet the standards of public expectation? In the case of Aamir Khan, social media has clearly leaned toward the latter, and that is where the controversy continues to grow.

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