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.

The Night Democracy Changed

Writer: C.S. Krishnamurthy
C.S. Krishnamurthy
Aug 4
3 min read

Nearly half a century separates today's journalism students from the midnight of June 25, 1975. For many of them, the Emergency belongs to textbooks, examination questions and occasional political debates. Yet, history acquires a different texture when narrated by someone who has spent decades in the newsroom, understands the anatomy of power and appreciates the indispensable role of a free press.


That opportunity came alive at Jain (Deemed-to-be University), where the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication organised a thought-provoking lecture on “The Emergency of 1975: Precedents, Proclamation, Paralells.”


The session featured Krishna Prasad, former Group Editorial Officer of The Hindu and former Editor-in-Chief of Outlook magazine. Rather than recounting familiar historical facts, Prasad challenged students to view the Emergency as a continuing lesson in constitutional vigilance, democratic responsibility and journalistic courage.


Historical Lens

“Remember June 25. Keep it permanently etched in your mind.”  That simple appeal perhaps captured the spirit of the lecture better than any elaborate analysis.


Tracing the political turmoil preceding the proclamation, Prasad explained how the Allahabad High Court verdict against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the nationwide movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan and the constitutional advice reportedly offered by Siddhartha Shankar Ray converged into one of independent India's most consequential decisions. At around 11.45 pm on June 25, 1975, the President signed the proclamation under Article 352, citing "internal disturbance", fundamentally altering India's democratic landscape.


The presentation moved well beyond dates and legal provisions. Through archival newspaper pages, rare photographs, political cartoons, constitutional amendments and the covers of landmark books on the Emergency, history unfolded almost frame by frame. The visual journey reminded students that journalism is often history's first draft.


The presentation also examined constitutional changes during the period, including the 38th, 39th, 41st and 42nd Amendments, illustrating how legal instruments can reshape democratic institutions when extraordinary powers remain unchecked.


Press Matters

For journalism students, however, the most compelling lessons emerged from the discussion on the media.


Prasad vividly recalled how censorship became one of the defining characteristics of the Emergency. Newspapers were prohibited from publishing material critical of the government. In Delhi, electricity supplies to newspaper offices were reportedly disconnected to prevent presses from rolling. News was no longer determined solely by editorial judgement but increasingly by official approval.


Perhaps the most haunting image shown during the lecture was the famous front page of The Indian Express, where blank spaces silently protested censorship more powerfully than words ever could. Another memorable slide highlighted that 253 editors and journalists were arrested, while yet another recalled the detention of over one lakh individuals during the 21 months of the Emergency.


Prasad also drew attention to Motherland, the RSS-owned newspaper that continued to symbolise journalistic resistance despite intense censorship. Its editor, K. R. Malkani, became the first journalist to be arrested during the Emergency, underscoring the personal risks borne by members of the press.


Yet the lecture encouraged critical thinking rather than easy conclusion.  One slide quoted Vinoba Bhave's description of the Emergency as an “era of discipline” while another examined why many sections of society, including certain industrial, labour and political groups, initially viewed aspects of the Emergency differently.


Prasad’s advice to future journalists was refreshingly practical. Do not confine yourself to one newspaper, he urged. Read widely. Compare perspectives. Question assumptions. Journalism, he reminded the audience, flourishes not through certainty but through inquiry.


His message carried particular relevance in an age flooded with information, algorithms and competing narratives. Independent thinking remains the journalist’s most valuable professional asset.


The organisers also deserve appreciation for selecting a theme that remains academically relevant even after five decades. 


One thought lingered above every constitutional amendment, every archival photograph and every censored newspaper page displayed on the screen:  democracy rarely disappears overnight. More often, it is gradually weakened when institutions stop questioning, when citizens stop caring and when journalists stop asking uncomfortable questions.


For students entering the profession today, the Emergency is not merely an episode to remember. It is a reminder that freedom of the press is neither permanent nor self-sustaining. Every generation inherits it, tests it and ultimately decides whether it will endure.  That may well have been the most enduring lesson of the lecture. History is valuable not because it remains in the past, but because it quietly shapes the choices we make in the present


(The writer is a retired banker and author. He can be reached at krs1957@hotmail.com. Views personal.)


Comments

bottom of page