When All Else Fails, Turn to Vaastu

The Jharkhand Assembly has turned to astrologers and architects to stage a political bailout.

Even by India’s forgiving standards, Jharkhand’s politics is a little more than just troubled. Until Arjun Munda was sworn in recently, for long there wasn’t even a government. Before that, over the past nine years, the state has seen seven chief ministers and two spells of President’s Rule. A former chief minister, Madhu Koda, is facing corruption charges and is in jail. Political chicanery, horse trading and defections are synonymous with politics here. One theory goes that it is all because the state is so flush with minerals and ill-gotten  wealth. The state administration blames it on a simpler and more convenient reason: vaastu dosh in the State Legislative Assembly complex in Ranchi. 

To rectify the problem, a massive reconstruction project— involving vaastu consultants and architects—is now underway. They are realigning the windows, doors, balconies and seating arrangements in the House. The offices of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Chief Minister, ministers and Leader of the Opposition are also being made vaastu compliant.

The Assembly,  originally a theatre called Lenin Hall, was built in 1962 for Russian engineers engaged in setting up Heavy Engineering Corporation. “Principles of vaastu weren’t taken into consideration at the time. Eminent astrologers have told us that the political instability that has tormented our state since its formation on 15 November 2000 is because the Assembly complex violates all principles of vaastu. Hence, the project to correct the faults,” says Assembly Speaker CP Singh. A prominent architecture firm and a group of astrologers have been engaged to do this. 

Rationalists are naturally sneery. West Bengal Science Society member Anil Bera says, “Vaastu doesn’t fall in the realm of science. There is no evidence that a building, be it in consonance with vaastu or not, can cause political stability.”

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Jaideep Mazumdar