Astrology and the media
S R Ramanujan
No, I am not referring to the "stars foretell" column carried on a daily/weekly/monthly basis in almost every newspaper/magazine of the country, nor the free pull-outs brought out by regional dailies whenever the planets move out from one place to another, capitalising on the beliefs of readers. The Hindu was the only exception among the English dailies till recently to resist the temptation. But even this conservative-turned-Marxist daily had bitten the forbidden apple for sometime and you had queries answered in its columns based on the astrological chart besides the weekly forecasts which did not make any sense to me at least. The language that was used could be decoded only by another astrologer. Thank Stars, this column silently disappeared.
We can dismiss all these as gimmicks to cater to a section of the readers, and may be, in the process increase the circulation a bit. Because there is no evidence to conclude that these columns add any fillip to the circulation figures. Eenadu Telugu daily has consistently refrained from falling into this rut, and its circulation has only soared.
What the world’s most circulated English daily, the Times of India did on the day of Ugadi (30th March) must have shocked any average reader whose intelligence and rational thinking were trifled with. The lead story of the day in the Hyderabad edition screamed "SHOP TILL YOU DROP" with a kicker "Scholars Say The Telugu New Year Beginning Today Will Make A Shopper Out of You, If Not A Pauper". The story ran like this:
"The Telugu new year, beginning on Thursday, has been given the portentous name Vyayanama samvatsaram. "Vyaya" means expenditure. True to its name, it is likely to leave citizens with a hole in their pocket. But all is not lost. The ruling planet this year is Jupiter. The effects associated with the largest planet will bring good tidings…."
The lead story of the day ran in a similar vein quoting, in an alongside table, three astrologers and what they had to predict. While one astrologer predicted "poor monsoon", the second astrologer foresaw "bountiful rainfall and farm output" and for the third it was "rainfall less than normal". There was an element of political content as well to these predictions. "Tension at LoC," Stability for AP government" and "Bottlenecks for irrigation projects". The most climactic prediction was this. "On June 8, between 4 and 4.30 PM, a person will be born in the state who will rule the country"
Traditionally, Ugadi is marked by a religious event in the early hours of the day when a Pundit, not necessarily an astrologer, reads out the year’s almanac and tries to interpret it in the presence of the chief minister and other dignitaries. The presence of political bigwigs makes the Pundit to stray into politics and make certain observations politically savvy. This used to be carried as a single column on the next day, just to record the event as nobody takes it very seriously.
The TOI must be rewriting the definition of news when it chose to lead with this story on the day of Ugadi itself, probably in order to preempt its competitors. Amazing what competition is doing to the media! It is certain that the story must have only confused the readers with its contradictory predictions, assuming that someone takes them a bit seriously. Interestingly, the author of the story remained anonymous.
The actual event was reported on the next day. The Pundit reassured the audience that there was no cause for concern because the year was named "Vyaya" (expenditure). He said "The Finance Minister knows pretty well how to manage the resources". The stars also did foretell that the government may face flak from the Election Commission and the Human Rights Commission.
While this was on the governmental side, the leader of the Opposition in Andhra Pradesh assembly, who has not yet reconciled to the loss of power and continues with the mindset of a ruler, organized a parallel show of "Panchanga Sravanam" (listening to almanac). Chandrababu Naidu was not personally present because of his election campaign for the Asom Gana Parishad in the North-East. The Pundits predicted what would have pleased him. According to the Hindu report, "Telugu Desam chief will form the Third Front". In all fairness to the daily, the report mentioned that it was a "repeat performance with the scholar predicting mid-term polls and that a Third Front would emerge at the national level under the leadership of TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu. Srinivasa Gargeya, who read the almanac said similar things last year too."
The Times highlighted yet another political point of the TDP Pundit’s prediction. Since the TDP is vehemently opposed to the separate state of Telangana vivisecting Andhra Pradesh, how can the Pundit say something which would not be music to the ears of the organizers. Hence, he said "separate Telengana is a lost cause".
It is perfectly normal for politicians to revel in fantasies at the dawn of Telugu new year. It is also understandable that Pundits have to earn their livelihood by making their "predictions" more down to earth and more pleasurable to the political class. But should the media go along with them. Anyway, the first page lead story in the Times on 30th March should make any professional sit up and ponder as to what is happening to the mainstream media.