United in astrology

United in astrology

It is puerile to view the arrest of an astrologer in Gujarat as an attack against superstition, let alone astrology. Significantly enough, the charge the Gandhinagar police have flung at him is spreading of rumours, and not practice of astrology. The police took suo motu action against him only when his predictions of an imminent earthquake spread panic among the people, who are yet to recover from the January 26 disaster. Had he been a little smarter and had he perfected the tricks of the trade, he would surely not have experienced the ignominy of being dragged to the police station. After all, there are countless people who make a living, some of them fabulously, by predicting the future. The Gujarat police have rightly argued that earthquakes are impossible to predict in picking up the astrologer.

But what about those who predict everything from matrimonial bliss to course of wars and the political future of the country based on the supposed positions of planets, positioned light years away in outer space? No surprise, then, that it is said that a good astrologer is one who can predict events and when the events do not take place explain why they did not happen. They are the ones who are the toast of the powerful, the moneyed and the glamorous and they operate from the comforts of their plush offices and luxurious hotel rooms. The smaller fries ply their trade on the roadsides, in village markets and mela grounds with the aid of caged parrots or large lenses.

The state has never been known to tackle such peddlers of superstition although the directive principles of the Constitution enjoin it to promote the scientific temper. What else could have been expected from the state which chose the moment of its own birth -- the night of August 14-15, 1947 -- because it was ‘‘the most auspicious’’? When even leaders like Pandit Nehru, who swore by science and rationality, often played safe and did not stick their neck out, what else can be expected from insecure leaders who would go to any extent to ‘fortify’ their position? In such situations, it is difficult to distinguish fact from fiction and faith from superstition.

Think of it, the poor astrologer in Ahmedabad was arrested but none of the clever ones who spread the rumour about Ganesh idols drinking milk by the gallons a few years ago was hauled up. Again, the question is what scientific temperament did Gujarat display when a few days before the earthquake the state Cabinet decided that every minister should keep a cow in his ministerial household as a token of his commitment to cow protection?

In a country where scientific advisers to the defence minister end up as spokesmen of godmen, where a minister in charge of science and technology flies thousands of miles to take part in the celebrations of an astrological magazine, where ‘educationists’ are thinking of ways to introduce Vedic astrology in university-level courses, is it any surprise that a minister in Karnataka whose Christian belief is rooted in the Old Testament versions of the revengeful God sees the earthquake as divine punishment? The sad thing is that they are all in the same boat, moving on the placid waters of superstition. It is the ones who cannot balance like the astrologer in Ahmedabad and the minister in Bangalore who trip and fall.