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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.

Surprise inspection finds no class 10 student at UP madrassa can write name in English

PTI
Apr 28, 2025
3 min read

Bahraich: A surprise inspection at a madrassa in this district has unveiled the sorry state of education there, with officials saying that none of its class 10 students could write their names in English.


Alarmed, authorities issued a warning and a notice to the madrassa and asked the seminary to focus on other subjects besides Arabic and Persian.


Qari Irfan, a faculty member at the seminary, said 15 students have been enrolled in class 10 so far, and of them 10 were present during Monday's surprise inspection.


"The students asked to write in English are new to this seminary. They are weak in English and could not perform to the satisfaction of the inspecting officials. We will hold separate classes for struggling students," the acting principal (Naib Principal) of the madrassa, Maulana Shamsuddin, told PTI.


District Minority Welfare Officer Sanjay Mishra told reporters on Monday that the surprise inspection was conducted at Jamia Gaziya Sayyadul Uloom, a recognised madrassa in the Badi Takiya area.


One of the teachers was found absent though it was not recorded in the attendance register, Mishra said and also noted that students' attendance in Munshi, Maulvi, and Alim classes was significantly lower compared to the registered number.


"During the inspection, class 10 students were asked to write their names and that of the madrassa in English. But none could do it," he claimed and pointed out that the seminary's focus was largely limited to Arabic and Persian studies with little attention to other subjects.


This has led to an "alarming" academic situation, the officer said, adding, "Neglecting the broader education of students is playing with their future."


The authorities have warned the madrassa of strict action if immediate steps are not taken towards improving the quality of education. Notices have been sent to the madrassa management and the absent teacher.


Shamsuddin pointed out that besides imparting religious education, the madrassa had provisions for teaching English, Hindi, Mathematics, and Science. "Which is why a science teacher had been appointed. But more emphasis was given to Arabic, Persian, and Urdu rather than these subjects."


"However, since the implementation of the NCERT curriculum... we have now started focusing on all subjects. It is better for the children's future that they are not limited to becoming just Alims (religious scholars) but also have opportunities in other fields as well," he said.


In view of the minority welfare officer's warning, "we have now prepared a timetable for teachers to teach all subjects", the acting principal added.


About the officer complaining that very few students of Munshi, Maulvi, and Alim classes being in attendance at the seminary, Irfan said the madrassa has enrolled 350 pupils for this academic session so far and the admissions was still in progress.


The student count is expected to increase as admissions continue, the teacher said.


The seminary has a three-tier academic structure. Classes 1 to 5, categorized as the primary level, are referred to as "Darja Tehtania"; classes 6 to 8, the junior level, are known as "Darja Faukania", while classes 9 to 12, comprising the high school and intermediate levels, are termed "Darja Alia."


Irfan further said that teachers handling classes up to 10 are traditionally titled "Maulvi" or "Munshi," while those teaching Classes 11 and 12 hold the title of "Alim".


The Bahraich district has 301 recognised madrassas. Additionally, a recent survey has identified 495 unrecognised madrassas in the district, according to officials.

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