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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 9:59:04 pm

Beyond Spectacle

Ganeshotsav is at its best when it brings Maharashtra together. For ten days, neighbourhoods become communities and homes become welcoming spaces as devotion spills naturally into the streets. There is music, modaks and the unmistakable sense that the festival belongs to everyone. Few public celebrations have such a powerful capacity to create shared joy. Yet, in recent years, Ganeshotsav festivities have tended towards bombastic spectacle, be it the height of an idol or the decibels...

Beyond Spectacle

Ganeshotsav is at its best when it brings Maharashtra together. For ten days, neighbourhoods become communities and homes become welcoming spaces as devotion spills naturally into the streets. There is music, modaks and the unmistakable sense that the festival belongs to everyone. Few public celebrations have such a powerful capacity to create shared joy. Yet, in recent years, Ganeshotsav festivities have tended towards bombastic spectacle, be it the height of an idol or the decibels generated by a noisy sound system. This year’s controversies on the festivities have acquired a significance beyond their immediate headlines. The collapse of a 22-foot idol during an arrival procession in Bhuleshwar last month that killed two people was a grim reminder that grandeur has consequences. Mumbai has no general government-prescribed ceiling on idol height, and some mandals have dramatically increased their scale in recent years. But when an idol becomes a statement of prestige, the safety of devotees and immersion sites must take precedence. The same principle applies to the increasingly contentious question of noise. The trouble over DJs and high-decibel systems in Pune has exposed the growing tension between the right to celebrate and the right of others to live without suffering excessive noise. The assault on activist Vidyanand Bapat after he campaigned against high-decibel celebrations was particularly disturbing. More than 1,000 citizens subsequently joined a protest seeking action against loud sound systems. Maharashtra has a long and rich tradition of public celebration, and music is inseparable from that tradition. But celebration in a shared public space also carries an obligation to show consideration for senior citizens, patients, children and others particularly vulnerable to noise. A festival can be vibrant without becoming oppressive. The festival’s enormous popularity also carries a great responsibility with it. The larger the Ganeshotsav becomes, the greater its impact on public spaces, the environment and civic infrastructure. This is the larger test facing Maharashtra. A festival that has survived generations does not need to prove its vitality by becoming progressively bigger, louder or more extravagant. Its strength lies in its ability to adapt without losing its soul. The finest Ganeshotsav is not necessarily the one with the tallest idol or the loudest sound system but the one that leaves behind a sense of happiness, togetherness and goodwill. It is one in which faith does not have to compete with civic responsibility, and celebration does not come at the expense of others. As Ganeshotsav begins today, Maharashtra should celebrate its great public festival with all its customary warmth and exuberance but without allowing excess and spectacle to overwhelm its deeper meaning. For Bappa has always stood as the remover of all obstacles and the bringing together of communities with the promise of renewal. Ganpati Bappa Morya.

Selective Outrage

Correspondent
May 9, 2025
2 min read

India’s left-liberal media has long prided itself on being the torchbearer of secularism, dissent and moral rectitude. In the aftermath of ‘Operation Sindoor,’ the precision military strike launched by the Modi government against Pakistan-based terror camps, it has revealed its not a principled commitment to peace or truth, but a disturbing penchant for ideological prejudice, performative sanctimony and selective outrage.


The operation itself was a textbook display of calibrated force and geopolitical prudence. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, often caricatured as ‘authoritarian’ by the ‘liberal’ English-language commentariat, chose patience over provocation. He consulted opposition leaders, held detailed discussions with defence chiefs and took key international stakeholders, notably the United States and Russia, into confidence before authorising limited military action. The symbolism of ‘Operation Sindoor’ was also carefully crafted: a pointed reminder that the attack’s real victims were Hindu women widowed by Pakistan-sponsored militants in Kashmir. The government’s briefings were also strategic and symbolic as two ranking female officers, one of them Muslim, were made the public face of the mission, underlining a new Indian confidence that blends military muscle with democratic pluralism.


But this was unacceptable for India’s entrenched ‘left-liberal’ press, steeped in academic jargon, Western validation and a knee-jerk hostility to anything remotely ‘Hindutva.’ That a Muslim officer briefed the nation on ‘Operation Sindoor’ was branded ‘tokenism’ by such commentators. Others crudely alleged that the April 22 Pahalgam massacre was the logical culmination of reported atrocities against Muslims since Modi came to power in 2014.


The semantic nitpicking over ‘Operation Sindoor’ was maddening. An editor of a prominent magazine dubbed the operation’s name as ‘patriarchal’ and coded in Hindutva tropes. In a bizarre case of moral inversion, sindoor was likened to symbols of ‘honour killings’ and gender oppression, ignoring both its cultural resonance and the cruel reality that these women had lost their husbands in cold blood. For years, India’s ‘secular’ commentariat nurtured a preordained binary: the Congress may be flawed but was at least ‘secular’ while the BJP was an inveterate ‘fascist.’ Thus, the 2002 Gujarat riots are always focused upon but the Congress-backed pogrom of the Sikhs in 1984 is either downplayed or rationalised. Terrorism in Kashmir is tragic, but state retaliation is ‘jingoism.’ A strong Muslim voice in government is ‘tokenism’ but its absence is ‘exclusion.’ Even journalistic rigour is selectively applied. When Pakistan claimed to have downed Indian jets, some Indian outlets rushed to amplify the story before verification, inadvertently echoing enemy propaganda.


Dissent is vital in any democracy. But when its becomes indistinguishable from disdain, when editorial choices are dictated by ideological conformity, then the press becomes a caricature of itself. Ironically, many of these journalists enjoy robust free speech and loudly lament India’s supposed slide into ‘fascism’ from the safety of their X handles. Yet they turn a blind eye to Putin’s repression, Erdogan’s purges or Xi Jinping’s camps. In their eyes, Modi remains the greatest threat to democracy even as they broadcast their outrage freely, without fear of censorship or reprisal. ‘Operation Sindoor’ was a statement of cultural self-confidence. That confidence has rattled those who have spent their careers gatekeeping Indian discourse. Today, their monopoly is over. The people are watching and they no longer believe that the emperor has clothes.

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