July 17, 2026

Leading People Up The Superstition Alley

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-11-24 14:36:03

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

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The Congress is undecided whether it wants to occupy the high moral ground or play the BJP at its game. On the one hand, Rahul Gandhi calls Prime Minister Modi 'panauti' (a person who bring bad luck) for attending the World Cup final in Ahmedabad and making Team India lose a match they were favourites to win and 'jebkatra'and on the other, the party points out that the BJP is guilty of calling Rahul and Sonia Gandhi worse names. (To be fair, PM Modi had recently called Rahul Gandhi, without naming him, and people like him 'murkhon ke sardaar' (king of fools)).

So what would the Congress and its leaders do? Will they say that the BJP is a depraved party that stoops low to make personal remarks to occupy the high moral ground or will it return the favour? Going by all accounts, the party will do the latter. Rahul Gandhi noted the murkhon ke sardaar remark and came up with the panauti and jebkatra responses within a few days. This has been continuing since the campaigning for the 2014 elections when personal remarks flew thick and fast. Since then, the Congress cannot claim the high moral ground as its leaders also called Modi 'maut ka saudagar','dus munh ka ravan', 'neech aadmi'and worse.

But the panauti remark was especially in bad taste as it used by people who believe in superstition. Would Rahul Gandhi have us believe that matches can be won or lost if a person attends, or not attends, a game as he or she might bring good or bad luck? Is he suggesting that if and when he becomes prime minister he would weed out all panautis from all spheres so that India will progress faster? It has also opened the doors for more such remarks. Mamata Banerjee said India lost the match as 'sinners' (referring to Modi and Amit Shah) attended it. She also said that India would have won if the match was held in Eden Gardens, Kolkata or Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. But she forgot that in 1996, India lost the World Cup semifinals to Sri Lanka at the Eden by default as the crowd did not let the match to be completed after India lost 8 wickets for just 120 chasing a target of 252. Others have called Modi and Shah Rahu-Ketu. Politicians must refrain from making such statements as they wean people away from scientific and logical thinking and lead them up the superstition alley. 

(Please note that the reference to AI as Astrological Intelligence in the lead picture is taken from a cartoon by Sandeep Adhwaryu in The Times of India dated 24^th Nov 2023)