Cursed towns, evil rooms and goat sacrifices, our netas love superstitions

Anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead while he was on his morning walk in Pune on Tuesday morning. For the 69-year-old Dabholkar, spreading scientific temper and eradicating superstitions and undesirable rituals in the society was a lifelong mission, quite contrary to the superstitions believed by politicians, some of whom make their moves only after due consultations with godmen, astrologers and the likes. dna takes a look at some of these men and their beliefs.

Prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru kept astrologers and gurus at bay, but his daughter Indira Gandhi was deeply influenced by soothsayers. Even during Nehru’s life time, Dhirendra Brahmachari had made inroads in Teen Murti House to teach yoga to Mrs Gandhi. Later, Chandraswamy had free access to Delhi’s power corridors through Mrs Gandhi.

A few months ago, former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal made a last ditch effort to save his chair before he was forced to resign from the council of ministers for his alleged involvement in the railgate. On the advice of his family pundit, he sacrificed a goat at his Lutyen’s ministerial bungalow. The goat didn’t save him; Congress president Sonia Gandhi sought his resignation alongwith that of then law minister Ashwani Kumar on May 10.

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, who believes in socialist ideas, never visits Noida. He has been told that a visit to the city will bring him bad omen.

Former chief minister and Karnataka Janata Paksha founder BS Yeddyurappa visited many coastal temples in Karnataka to invoke black magic for his continuity. It didn’t work and Yeddyurappa’s party failed to make a mark in the  assembly elections.

Karnataka’s sleepy border town of Guntakal is also said to bring bad luck to Congress leaders, who believe that whichever leaders visits the town, loses power. Mrs Gandhi lost power after visiting the town in 1976, three Congress CMs — Marri Chenna Reddy, K Vijayabhaskar Reddy and N Janardhan Reddy — addressed their last public meetings in office in Guntakal. Not just Congress leaders, the curse apparently to others too — TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu lost the 2004 assembly polls immediately after visiting Guntakal.

Other politicians from the south, Deve Gowda and Narasimha Rao, consulted personal astrologers for every official move.

During his 11-month rule, Gowda didn’t shift to the official prime minister’s residence at 7, Race Course road for over seven months. He sought a total renovation in which the direction of the main residence was changed according to an astrologer’s advice.

When Gowda shifted there, his stint as PM lasted just a few months as the Congress pulled the plug on him.

Gowda’s predecessor PV Narasimha Rao, the most literate and polyglot prime minister, went a step further by appointing an official astrologer. NK Sharma also served as Rao’s political advisor.

Even Jairam Ramesh, considered to be a liberal, has succumbed to superstitious beliefs.  He refused to occupy a large room on the second flood of Delhi’s Shram Shakti Bhawan, which houses the water, power and labour ministries. Reason: The room had been vacant since 2005 after two power ministers — PR

Kumaramangalam and PM Sayeed — died in office. No minister has taken this room since.

The BJP too has its fair share of believers. President Rajnath Singh waited till Basant Navratra to get over announce his new team.