Opinion Lok Sabha elections 2024: Busy season for politicians, media — and astrologers

That’s why many leaders and candidates visit astrologers to discuss their electoral prospects. There are politicians who reject astrology and dress in progressive garb for the media while consulting astrologers in private. I remember watching a video clip of a speech by a veteran politician, an ex-minister, during an electoral campaign a few years ago. The man was ridiculing Jayalalithaa for her faith in astrology. I found it most entertaining because the same person had visited me a month earlier for a thorough reading of his birth chart.

Our first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who is widely regarded as a rationalist and an agnostic who rejected astrology, had asked his daughter to “make a proper horoscope of his grandson by a competent person”. This is in a letter to his sister, published in the book Nehru’s Letters to His Sister (1963), edited by Krishna Hutheesing.

Durga Das, in his book India: From Curzon to Nehru and After (1969), writes that, upon the advice of the then Planning Minister Gulzari Lal Nanda, Nehru consulted an astrologer in 1962. When the astrologer predicted a Chinese aggression, an irritated Nehru told the jyotishi “you are talking bilge”.

Chinese aggression followed soon after and Nehru “was in a mood to listen to the astrologer,” writes Das. The jyotishi, this time, warned about Nehru’s health. Das writes, “What followed was shrouded in the utmost secrecy. Fifty learned priests were engaged by his admirers to perform the prescribed rites at a temple in Kalkaji, a suburb of Delhi. At the end of the daily ceremonies, the Brahmin pundits repaired to the Prime Minister’s residence to place an auspicious tilak mark on his forehead.”

Senior astrologers will have many such interesting stories to tell about politicians; but, of course, as astrologers, we take client confidentiality seriously, so you will not hear these stories in public.

The questions astrologers face at this time will be about the general result of the election. Who is going to rule our nation? Who is going to be at the helm? Who will get to become ministers? Journalists might ask these questions out of genuine curiosity, or, in some cases, with a veiled contempt for astrology (something that astrologers accept as an occupational hazard)!

The questions about elections that an astrologer faces, even from an astrological viewpoint, are complicated and precise analyses are tough. It is difficult to analyse the charts of all the candidates. Besides, astrologically too, there are numerous things that might influence an election — from the candidates’ birth charts to the exact time at which the nomination is filed.

Though ours is a data-centric culture, these details are hard to collect and collate. Despite these difficulties, astrologers attempt to study elections. One way to do this is to examine the charts of the leaders. What do those charts say? You can look at the charts and find out how the stars align. Is the current time astrologically in favour and can it be said that the leader will come back? Can he or she execute their pet plans and projects? Can they successfully conquer unethical hostility and enmity that comes against them and their plans? What lies in store?

Of course, one will have to analyse many other charts, and aspects, to get a clearer astrological picture. But the question is, is such a thorough examination warranted in public interest?

One may very well say that astrological analyses are not scientific and hence should be discarded at face value. I would urge them to look at the “scientific” predictions from our psephologists. One can easily see that we, astrologers, are often more accurate than them.

The writer is an astrologer and scholar based in Kerala