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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.

‘Waqf amendments positive for the community’

Writer: Abhijit Mulye
Abhijit Mulye
Apr 4, 2025
5 min read

Chairman of Maharashtra Waqf Board Sameer Kazi is very positive about the amendments of Waqf act. In an exclusive interview to ‘The Perfect Voice’ he says this shall bring in the much-awaited developments in management of the Waqf properties and help the Muslim community. Excerpts…


Q. What do you think of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill passed by the parliament?

The amendments in the Waqf act were necessary and hence, the bill that has now been passed by both the houses of the parliament had become a necessity. I can very well understand that some people might have opposed it while it was in the form of the bill. But, now when both the houses of the parliament have cleared the bill, every citizen of the country is duty bound to abide by it. As a law-abiding citizen we shall all stick to it and think about how we can strengthen the services offered by the Waqf board to common citizen. The bill has done away with certain parts of the Waqf act. But I don’t think that it adversely affects the working of the Waqf board. In fact it has decluttered the procedures and that shall benefit the common people more than anything else. Also, this shall lead to the development of the minority community, I feel.


Q. How do you think the act shall affect the functioning of the Waqf board?

The working of the Waqf board per say won’t change much. The amendments have cut down the scope and the jurisdiction in certain cases. So, barring that the routine work of the Waqf board shall continue like as it is. That won’t undergo any major change. Also, one needs to understand what are the curtailments imposed in the new amendments. They are primarily about declaration of certain properties as Waqf properties. Or declaring them as Waqf by users. These parts that were there earlier have been done away with in the new amendments. Also there are certain limitations imposed. Overriding effects have been done away with. Some of the rights that were with the board earlier have now been passed on to the collectors. That means instead of we making the decision in certain cases, we shall now have to prepare the file for the case and send it to the district collector and after they clear it, we shall register those properties as Waqf properties. So, this is just a step added into the decision process in order to streamline it with other land records related work of the state government.


The other part of the amendments is regarding the audit of the lands. In fact, I shall state here that audit is the better part of the amendments. They have brought in a new software that is same for the whole country. That shall prove to be beneficial to the Waqf board. That shall help the boards increase their revenue. With the amendments, the board shall now have more funds to be able to show how they actual spend their resources for the benefit of the community since, the land given to the Waqf board or the revenue out of is to be used for the community. For the betterment of the community.


Q. Revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule announcement about a fortnight ago that all the illegally held land by the Waqf board will be reclaimed by the state government. What is your take on that?

It is not like that. It is basically about the different acts related to Inam lands like the Hyderabad Inam abolition act which is applicable for the Marathwada region or the Bombay Inam abolition which is applicable in the Konkan, North Maharashtra and Western Maharashtra regions. The Waqf lands in these regions are managed according to these acts. The state government had recently resolved to bring down tax on such lands in Marathwada region from 50 per cent to 5 per cent. So, the similar demands started coming up from other regions also. While reacting to queries about such land the revenue minister also said that if there are any such lands that would be found to be illegally held by the Waqf board, the government shall reclaim them. There is nothing wrong in saying that. I met him after that and we discussed ways to verify the land records and make appropriate decisions regarding the land parcels in dispute. One such example is from Latur, where some farmers were sent notices.

BJP leader Kirit Somaiya argues with a police officer posted outside a mosque in Bhandup area following a dispute between locals and the Muslim community over Friday prayers on the footpath in Mumbai on Friday. Pic: PTI
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya argues with a police officer posted outside a mosque in Bhandup area following a dispute between locals and the Muslim community over Friday prayers on the footpath in Mumbai on Friday. Pic: PTI

Q. Please explain to us the case of farmers in Latur who were served notices by the Waqf board. How that case will be affected by the new law?

A person had filed petition with the Waqf tribunal claiming that about 300 acres of land was Waqf property and notices were served to around 130 farmers in Talegaon and Budhole villages in this regard. This led to much of uproar. However, one needs to understand that it was a third-party claim and it was not at all related to the Waqf board. The Waqf board and Waqf tribunal are two different things. The tribunal is a after all court. When we learnt about the case, we verified our records and made it clear that there were no Waqf properties in the area. This helped resolve the issue. Bawankule might have referred to such claims by individuals or wrongdoings by them. His intentions are certainly good. He has even formed a committee to look into and decide upon such cases. When we met recently, I requested him to ensure that the Waqf board chairman be made ex-officio members of such committees to ensure speedy redressal of cases. He too readily agreed to the demand.


Q. Do you see more incidents like the case of Imambara in Pune where the court overturned the Waqf status?

I don’t think so. Because, most of such cases are decided by the Waqf tribunals. Earlier the decision by these tribunals didn’t have a provision to be challenged in the courts of law. The new amendments in the Waqf act have made such provisions. The Waqf boards had the section 40 to give their opinion in certain cases of this nature. However, that section has now been done away in the new amendments. So, I don’t think that the amendments will have much of baring on cases of this nature where the courts decided against Waqf status of some property.


Q. Waqf board was given Rs 10 crore by the state government a few months back but retracted the decision later. Do you more such things happening after this new act?

Not at all. In fact, in my opinion, the new amendments have ended the alienation of the Waqf boards. Earlier the boards were perceived as something belonging to one community. Now it will be looked at as an integral part of the government. So, I feel that more funds shall flow in that would help us in better management of the properties.

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