Opinion Spooked by the stars

The next morning I was startled when newspapers reported that,according to Congress sources,after all the high drama,the reshuffle of the council of ministers was likely to be deferred until after the middle of October. I was confused because this made no sense. But I am afraid I was being forgetful,if not foolish. After only a brief reflection the penny dropped. I remembered that October 1 to October 15 is the inauspicious period of shraadhs, during which the devout mourn their forbears and departed dear ones,hold special prayers for them and never initiate any new venture or activity. The joyous and auspicious era begins with the first of the nine navratris — the number can vary a little from year to year,depending on the diktat of the priest you trust — which falls this year on October 16.

I had first witnessed this bizarre side of Indian politics in 1986,during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure as prime minister. He was rather fond of reshuffling his team every few months. Three Congress MPs,one of them a friend of mine,having got a whiff of one more change in the offing,had been beseeching him to reward them for their “loyalty and services” by including them in his charmed circle. One fine morning,each of the trio got summons to be at the PMO at a certain time. When ushered into the PM’s presence,they were told that they should be ready to take the oath of office the next day.

Thereupon,all three supplicants folded their hands and begged of Rajiv to postpone the swearing-in and even the announcement of their appointment as ministers until after the shraadhs were over. He was amused but granted their request.

On learning of this episode,I published it,together with my comments,in the newspaper for which I was then working. I said that every individual had a right to follow the religious rituals he or she believed in,but only privately. In public life,religion could not have a place. What if the Indian state needed,during the shraadhs,to take immediate action against an adversary or start a major project of great national importance?

The next day P. N. Haksar,once an outstanding principal secretary to Indira Gandhi,then in retirement,rang up to say: “No matter how hard we try to extricate our society from the primordial slime of superstition,sorcery,occult and all that rubbish,we cannot succeed.

Do you know politicians of today are organising tantric yagnas to destroy,or at least damage,their rivals”?

Rewind to 1977. Some people,at least,would remember that it was on January 18 of that year that Indira Gandhi announced fresh elections,which she predictably lost,as abruptly as she had announced the proclamation of the Emergency. During the last stages of the polls,by when her defeat was certain,I asked her secretary of 10 years,P. N. Dhar,when exactly the decision to hold elections was taken. He replied that in mid-December 1976,she had asked him to call in the chief election commissioner and tell him,“in utmost confidence”,to start preparing for elections that would be announced “at the appropriate time”.

In that case,I asked Dhar,why weren’t elections announced on January 1? Didn’t he advise her to do so? “In such matters she relied on her astrologers,not her aides”,he answered. Incidentally,Rajiv also fixed the date of the 1989 elections on the advice of his astrologer,who was also his cabinet secretary,T. N. Seshan.

The writer is a Delhi-based political commentator,express@expressindia.com