The Politics Of Superstition

On August 11, arch rivals Laloo Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar joined hands at the Hajipur rally and gave an unjustifiable, if not hilarious speech about why they joined hands. Before we go further, let us hear some excerpts from Laloo Yadav’s speech. Please listen from time code 3:30 to 5:20.

Here Laloo Yadav addresses the audience saying that when Narendra Modi took oath at 6:15 pm, that was “Gadbel” – time which is considered inauspicious. He asks them to confirm from any known pandit and adds further that from the same day, the country started facing bad luck, citing the example of Gorakhdham Express train accident and Hyderabad students drowning to death in Uttaranchal. In his words, “Modi ke aane se ashubh ho gaya”.  Is he allowed to make such outright superstitious remarks openly?

Fine, given his “funny” nature, let us give him the benefit of the doubt. May be he was just trying to amuse his audience. But then, as he continued his speech, he says that when Narendra Modi went to Nepal, bad luck followed him there too, and there was a serious threat of floods in Nepal and Bihar. Then Laloo chides his audience for deceiving him by voting those who fed milk to Ganeshji.

Now that’s a total of three superstitious statements in a row. And this cannot be a coincidence. It was a by-election rally and the inference one can easily draw here is that Laloo Yadav was trying to shove his superstitious theories down the throat of his audience. The last time a similar incident happened at an election rally was when ex-Chhattisgarh CM Ajit Jogi told tribals they will suffer electric shock if they pressed non-Congress buttons on EVMs. This time, however, these outrageous statements were missed in the frenzy to cover the historic union of Laloo – Nitish.

Laloo Yadav has a history of superstitious beliefs himself. He once claimed that he had turned to vegetarianism after Lord Shiva ordered him in his dreams and ironically, Nitish Kumar had opposed him saying “we live in a scientific age”, which he seemed to have conveniently forgotten. Last year Laloo Yadav had visited a tantric, “Pagla Baba” for a favourable verdict in the fodder scam. He got his swimming pool filled with sand after suggestion from a vastu expert.

Why only Laloo? We have a series of Indian politicians who have not been able to rise beyond irrational beliefs:

• Former Rail Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal reportedly sacrificed a goat in an attempt to save his chair for the RailGate scandal
• Mulayam Singh Yadav allegedly never visits Noida because he believes it will bring him bad luck.
• Akhilesh Yadav  is believed to inaugurate all Noida projects by pressing a button in Lucknow because of a jinx that any CM who visits Noida loses his seat.
• Jairam Ramesh reportedly refused to occupy an office lying vacant for many years because some previous ministers died in office when they were occupying it.
• Ex PM Deve Gowda stepped into 7 Race Course Road 7 months after taking oath because he was renovating it as per his astrologer’s suggestions.
• Vasundhara Raje, according to sources, took oath on December 13 at 13:13 as 13 is her lucky number. She also changed official residence of CM from 8 Civil Lines to 13 Civil Lines.
• Ex-PM Narsimha Rao appointed NK Sharma as political advisor, who is also believed to have been his official astrologer.
• Yeddyurappa was known to fret about auspicious timings all the time. He supposedly visited many coastal temples in Karnataka to invoke the powers that be.
• Uma Bharti had once claimed after an accident that her political detractors were using tantriks to destabilise her life.
• Indira Gandhi it is said loved soothsayers. Dhirendra Brahmachari was a regular at Teen Murti Bhavan.
• Mamata Banerjee moved from her Kalighat home to Alipore reportedly on the advice of her astrologer.
• Nandan Nilekani, sources claim, sought advice from an astrologer before submitting his nomination between 12:15pm and 12:45pm.
• In 2009, BJP and Shiv Sena sought for auspicious time to sign off their seat sharing pact.

While it should be the personal choice of each political leader to practice their superstitious beliefs in private, the fact remains that no politician should use it as election tactic. You, as a politician, are fully entitled to use choice abuses for Modi like “maut ka saudagar”, “Hitler” etc, if you have facts and reason to back them with, but to say he is “ashubh” just proves a mindless irrational witch hunt.

We should start outraging on every single superstitious statement given by our netas.

Just to set the record straight Lalooji, the Gorakhdham train accident happened on May 26 at 10:45 am, when Modi had not even taken the oath. And the Hyderabad students drowned in Beas on June 8, some 13 days after Modi had assumed office. Even if it had occurred the same day, there was no reason to believe that the flashflood occurred because Modi took oath in an inauspicious moment and it would not have happened if the time was “right”.