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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.

AI for Emotional Support? Here’s Where It Helps—and Where It Fails

Writer: Manasee Bankar
Manasee Bankar
May 10
2 min read

Instant emotional validation may feel comforting, but real healing often requires human insight and accountability.

As a counsellor and therapist, one pattern I have been noticing more frequently in recent times is this—many people are now turning to AI before they turn to a mental health professional.


They go to AI for emotional advice, relationship clarity, conflict support, and even help in understanding their feelings. And honestly, this is not surprising. AI is available instantly, responds immediately, and offers what often feels like comfort during moments of confusion and emotional distress. For someone feeling overwhelmed, emotionally charged, lonely, or simply unheard, that can genuinely feel like support.


And in some ways, it is.


AI can be helpful for quick emotional regulation tools. It can suggest breathing techniques, grounding exercises, and journaling prompts and even offer basic ways to calm the mind during distress. It can make emotional support feel more accessible and less intimidating, especially in moments when someone needs immediate direction, reassurance, or a sense of stability.


But emotional support and emotional healing are not the same thing.


What I often notice in clients who first turn to AI is that while they may feel temporarily validated, they do not always feel truly understood. And more importantly, they do not always gain deeper clarity or emotional insight.


This is because AI largely responds to what is presented to it. If someone approaches a situation from a place of hurt, emotional overwhelm, anger, or victimhood, AI often responds by validating that experience exactly as it is shared. While that may feel comforting and reassuring in the moment, it does not always help the person identify what they may be missing, where their blind spots are, or what deeper emotional patterns may be influencing the situation beneath the surface.


And that is where therapy differs in a very important way.


A counsellor does not only listen to what is being said. A counsellor also listens for what is not being said. They notice emotional patterns, defence mechanisms, contradictions, avoidance, emotional wounds, recurring behavioural responses, and the deeper context beneath the words. They do not simply agree or reassure. They help you reflect more honestly. They help you pause before reacting. They help you question your own narrative when needed and see the situation with greater awareness, emotional balance, and personal responsibility.


That kind of clarity cannot come from agreement alone.


Therapy also brings something AI cannot truly offer—human accountability. The therapeutic space is not just about being heard or emotionally comforted. It is about being guided, challenged, supported, and held accountable in a way that allows real emotional change and growth to happen over time.


And then there is the most important difference of all—human understanding.


Emotional experiences do not exist in isolation. They are shaped by family dynamics, attachment patterns, personal history, emotional conditioning, unresolved wounds, cultural influences, and lived experiences accumulated over the years. A trained therapist understands the emotional depth and complexity of these layers in a way AI simply cannot fully grasp.


AI can offer tools. It can offer language. It can even offer temporary comfort and reassurance.


But it cannot replace the depth of human insight, emotional nuance, and therapeutic connection that real healing often requires.


AI can assist the process. It cannot become the process.

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