top of page

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.

How Israel's Action in Syria May Reshape its Borders?

Correspondent
Dec 23, 2024
4 min read
Syria

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli troops would remain in the Syrian territory indefinitely, blurring the border with its northern neighbour.


Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has never had fully recognized borders. Throughout its history, the frontiers with its Arab neighbours have shifted as a result of wars, annexations, ceasefires and peace agreements.


Now, the downfall of Syrian President Bashar Assad has created a situation that could once again reshape Israel's borders.


As Assad was toppled early this month, Israel quickly moved into the Syrian side of a 50-year-old demilitarized buffer zone. Netanyahu described the move as defensive and temporary, and said it was aimed at making sure that none of the groups jostling for power inside Syria threatened Israel.


But in Tuesday's visit to the Syrian side of the buffer zone, Netanyahu made clear that Israel plans on staying for some time. Speaking on the windswept summit of Mount Hermon overlooking Syria, he said Israel would remain “until another arrangement is found that will ensure Israel's security.”


Israel's establishment

In 1947, the United Nations approved a plan to partition what was then British-controlled Mandatory Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The contested city of Jerusalem was to be administered by the UN.


This plan, however, was never implemented. Israel declared independence in May 1948, and neighbouring Arab countries declared war. That war ended with Israel in control of some 77% of the territory – with Jordan controlling the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and Egypt in control of the Gaza Strip.


1967 Mideast war

During the six days of fighting of the 1967 Mideast war, Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, Gaza and the Sinai peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria.


Initially celebrated by Israel, the lightning victory set the stage for decades of conflict that continue to reverberate today.


Israel quickly annexed east Jerusalem – home to the city's most sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites as well as its Palestinian population.


Although Israel has never formally annexed the West Bank, it has informally incorporated much of the territory by building settlements that are now home to over 500,000 Jewish Israelis.


The international community overwhelmingly considers both east Jerusalem and the West Bank occupied territory. Israel also built settlements in the Sinai, Golan and the Gaza Strip.


1979 peace agreement with Egypt

Under Israel's first peace agreement with an Arab country, Israel returned the Sinai peninsula to Egypt and dismantled all settlements there.


1981 Golan annexation

Israel annexed the Golan Heights, a strategic mountainous region overlooking northern Israel. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump became the first and only foreign leader to recognize Israel's control. The rest of the world still considers the area occupied Syrian territory.


Netanyahu announced this week he wants to expand the Golan settler population after Assad's downfall.


1982 invasion of Lebanon

After a brief invasion of Lebanon against Palestinian militants in 1978, Israel reentered the country in 1982 in an operation that turned into an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon. Israel withdrew in 2000 under heavy fire from the Hezbollah militia.


1993 Oslo Accords

Israel and the Palestinians reached an interim peace deal granting the Palestinians autonomy in Gaza and parts of the West Bank, while leaving Israeli settlements intact. The accords were meant to pave the way for a two-state solution, but repeated rounds of peace talks ended in failure.


The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank and Gaza for their hoped-for state, with east Jerusalem as their capital.


2005 Gaza withdrawal

Then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon led a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, uprooting all troops and 21 settlements from the territory. Two years later, Hamas militants overran Gaza and ousted the Palestinian Authority.


2023 war in Gaza and Lebanon

Responding to Hamas' Oct. 7 cross-border attack, Israel invades Gaza in an operation that continues.


Israeli leaders have not laid out a clear postwar plan but have indicated they will maintain a buffer zone along Gaza's border with Israel along with some sort of long-term military presence. Some hardliners in Netanyahu's governing coalition have called for the re-establishment of Jewish settlements.


In October, Israeli ground troops invaded southern Lebanon after a year of fighting with Hezbollah militants. Under a ceasefire, Israel has pledged to withdraw from a strip of land it is occupying by late January.


The fall of Assad

As opposition forces ousted Assad on December 8, Israeli military forces moved into the Syrian side of the demilitarised buffer zone, established after the 1973 Mideast war. Israel now controls the zone and targets deeper inside the country.


Although Israel has said the move is temporary, its open-ended presence has drawn international criticism from countries such as Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia as well as the United Nations.


US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged all countries with interests in Syria to “try to make sure that we're not sparking any additional conflicts.” The new Syrian government has already lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council about Israeli advances into Syrian territory. The leader of the largest insurgent group, Ahmad al-Sharaa, has publicly condemned Israel's operations but said Syria is not seeking a military conflict with Israel.-AP

Comments

bottom of page