Fw: [media_monitor5] Astrology needs no defence

[Guest guest]

Bhaskarji,

 

Forwarding a posting from another group on a matter quite interesting for believers and non-believers in Astrology.

--- On Fri, 7/31/09, viji <viji123 wrote:

viji <viji123[media_monitor5] Astrology needs no defence"viji" <viji123Friday, July 31, 2009, 6:32 PM

Astrology needs no defencehttp://www.hvk. org/articles/ 0901/269. htmlAuthor: D P Sinha Publication: Organiser September 30, 2001 Introduction: Why is it that in US teaching of astrology is being recognised by the Government? Answer is simple. The US academics have the courage to explore new fields, which makes their country a frontrunner in research and discoveries. Whereas our academics are timid and imitators who thrive on borrowed learning from the West. The University Grant Commission has made Astrology an elective subject of study for Universities. The world ?elective? may be noted. It is left to Universities to decide whether they would like to offer a course of study in astrology. Yet Leftists and Anglophile liberals, deriving legitimacy in this country from Nehruvian legacy, have created a deafening din against

introduction of these courses. Columns are full of their sense of outrage and alarm-calls to save this country from sliding into ancient times of Yajnas, Rishis and chariots. They would be shocked to learn that their patron-saint Jawaharlal Nehru, the high priest of 'scientific temper' himself had succumbed, and surrendered to astrology, the age-old wisdom of India as would the following excerpt from the book India from Curzon to Nehru and After by Durga Das, former Editor, Hindustan Times (1969) would show: 'The community of astrologers did not merely influence the hour when independence of India should dawn. It shadowed most men in top echelons-and continues to do so. In some cases, the ?royal Astrologers, ? as they came to be called, became all powerful. I found Satya Narayan Sinha for several years Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and now. Minister for Information and Broadcasting a delightful storehouse of anecdotes in such matters.

Sinha told me how he himself came to acquire faith in astrology. A certain reader of horoscopes, derisively known as a 'patriwala?, had forecast Patel's death nine months before it happened. The Sardar himself was skeptical, and one night, during his accustomed telephone conversation with Sinha about parliamentary matters, chaffed him asking: ?What does your 'patriwala? say?? The seer, however, proved right to the exact day and we were all completely taken aback, said Sinha to me. When T.T.K. seemed to be at the peak of his power in 1958i came another pundit to assert that he was riding for a fall. Sinha ridiculed him, saying: ?You are talking: through your turban.' But the undaunted man that very day made a still more dire prophecy that Shri Krishnamachari quits. 'In the Government, Maulana Azad will suffer a fall in his bathroom and die four days later.? When Azad met with an accident, B.C. Roy was summoned from Calcutta. His

verdict was that there was no cause for anxiety. Sinha met Nehru in the lobby of the Parliament and told him of the prediction. Nehru exploded angrily: ?What rot are you talking? Bidhan (Dr Roy) is certain that Azad is in no danger.' Four days later, the Education Minister passed away. Sinha recalled how shaken Nehru was after this. Nehru's first serious illness was in March 1962 when he returned to Delhi from Poona running a high temperature. His doctors thought this was merely the aftermath of an exhaustive election campaign. But it turned out to be a grave ailment that confined him to bed for more than a month and compelled him to keep away from the meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party in which he was re-elected leader. To Sinha?s first suggestion that his horoscope be shown to a Jyotishi (astrologer) , Nehru turned a deaf ear. Gulzari Lal Nanda, the Planning Mini prevailed upon him, however, to relent. There was an explosion

when the man, well-known in Delhi, told Nehru he would be betrayed by his 'best friend' and would have to face an attack from China that very year. Nehru flared up and shouted: ?This can never happen. You are talking bilge? The Jyotishi folded the horoscope, handed it back and retreated. Not many weeks after, the Chinese launched their aggression. Nehru was in h mood to listen to the astrologer. But the pundit's words were hardly comforting. Nehru's life span was over, he pronounced. Only puja (ritual worship) could prolong it. What followed was shrouded in the utmost secrecy. Fifty learned priests were engaged by his admirers to perform the prescribed rites at a temple at Kalkaji in Delhi. At the end of the daily ceremonies, the Brahmin pundits repaired to the Prime Minister residence to place an auspicious tilak mark on his forehead. The astrologer had predicted that Nehru would have a second and more serious illness in January 1964

and that he would not survive beyond May 27. Sinha tried without success to dissuade Nehru from attending the Bhubaneswar session of the Congress. Nehru left New Delhi on 4th January and became very ill two or three days later. He never recovered fully from the stroke he had at this time. At the AICC session on 14th May, Sinha warned some of his cabinet colleagues that the Prime Minister was likely to die ill about ten days as a jyotishi from Bombay had predicted. Nehru passed away on 27th May'. I remember that in 1961, newspapers were full of Ashtagrah Yog (conjunction of eight- planets) and its likely adverse effect on people in general. Before the actual happening of the event in the skies, a number of pujas and havans were organised all over the country to ward off its evil influence. Pandit Nehru as usual reacted sharply and ridiculed publicly this show of mass-hysteria and superstition on some remote heavenly phenomenon occurring millions

of miles away from us. Nehru was at that time at the pinnacle of his power, an uncrowned king and democratically elected. But Sampurnanand, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and a recognised Sanskrit-scholar took up cudgels with Nehru and issued a statement that planets do affect our lives and that this Ashtagrah Yog is harmful to the country in general, and Nehru in particular. It was a great feat on the part of Sampurnanand, a mere chief Minister to challenge the mightiest of mighty in the country.But the events that unfolded in the country proved him right. India was invaded by China. Nehru who strode the world as a colossus of peace collapsed, his make-believe world lay in curmbles around him. In this context, the predictions with regard to Allahabad High Courts Judgement setting side Indira Gandhi's election, followed by imposition of Emergency and her days in wilderness after 1977, were foretold by a clairvoyant, as reported by N.N.

Palkhiwala in his book We and our nation: ?On the plane which I boarded to return to Bombay, next to me was seated an elderly, simple man dressed in khadi, carrying a khadi cloth bag. He asked me what had happened that day in the Prime Minister's case and I told him briefly what the judge had decided. He related how he was an inmate of a Gandhi ashram in Bangalore and that he had been out of the ashram since May 1975 to conduct one of his periodic tours in different parts of India. He mentioned the name of a clairvoyant in Bangalore who had made some predictions which he thought were rather curious. The conversation between us ran somewhat as follows: ?When I left the ashram in May 1975 the clairvoyant told me that the Prime Minister would lose the case which she was fighting in the Allahabad High Court and yet after losing the case, she would become the most powerful woman in the world,? said my neighbour. In surprise I asked,

'How can Smt Indira Gandhi become any more powerful than she is today? When she is already the head of the largest democracy on earth, what can possibly add to her power?? ?I do not know. I am only repeating to you what he said?. Unimpressed, I did not bother even to make a mental note of the name of the clairvoyant. But to carry on the conversation, I asked, ?did the soothsayer say anything else?? ?Yes. He said that the extraordinary power which the Prime Minister is to acquire will end in March 1977.? 'Did he mention the precise month and year?' ?Yes, he mentioned specifically that the cessation of the extraordinary power would be in March 1977.? ?Did he make any other prediction?? ?Yes he said that Jayapraksh Narayan who is today the most popular figure in India?s public life would be stricken by a fatal illness which would carry him away in about two years. He said that Shri Y. B. Chavan who

aspires to be the Prime Minister of India would never attain that position.? I came home, wondering what the would bring. In less than 36 hours the emergency was declared, the invaluable fundamental rights of the people were suspended, and the Prime Minister virtually acquired all the powers of the leader of a totalitarian state. That was the black morning of June 26, 1975. In the days immediately following the declaration of the Emergency, my mind kept on reverting to the four forecasts. I invited for a quiet dinner at my residence the then Editor of The Times of India and a very few other well-known journalists and related to them my conversation with the Gandhian ashramite in the plane. The next month I repeated the story to Ramnath Goenka of the Indian Express, who was literally hounded by the Congress government during the Emergency. Those were the days of gloom and despair, and the only streak of light was the prediction that the

totalitarianism would end in March 1977. I need hardly mention that all the predictions were accurately fulfilled-the assumption of supremacy which made Smt Indira Gandhi the most powerful woman in the world, the cessation of that supremacy in March 1977, the death of Jayparakash Narayan in October 1979, and Shri Y. B. Chavan dying in November 1984 without fulfilling his ambition of becomingthe Prime Minister. I did not meet Smt Gandhi again till the evening of March 22, 1977 when the results of the election showed that the Janata Party had won a landslide victory and Smt Gandhi had to resign as the Prime Minister. I was in Delhi on flat day and called on Smt Gandhi at her residence. I related to her the incident of my conversation with the total stranger on the plane in June 1975 and said, 'Indiraji, if it be any consolation, may I tell you that what has happened since the election case was filed against you in the Allahabad High Court

seems to have been preordained. ? She had tears in her eyes -the only time saw her in such a mood.? Ever since the UGC has allowed Universities to teach astrology, vociferous objections have been raised at two levels. One, at the academic level and the other at the political one. Not all, but some academics have urged that astrology is not a science, therefore it does not deserve a place in a University curriculum. This is a diversionary argument. Whether Astrology is a science is of no material consequence. Even if astrology is not a science, it still deserves to be taught to those who want to study it, like any other humanities subject. The State has no justifiable right to prohibit it in a democracy. Further, the debate whether astrology is a science or an art is meaningless at a point of time, where the water-tight compartments of knowledge am being rejected. Inter-disciplinary approach is the order of the day. There are

scores of institutions in and outside India that are already teaching astrology in India. Does all those people slipped backwards and their society became fatalist? Apprehensions of Left-academics in unfounded in this regard. On August 27, 2001 Washington Post reported that the 'Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology' has given accreditation to Astrological Institute located in suburban Phoenix in Arizona, USA and has become eligible to get federal grants from US Education Department. It is for the first time that US Government has given such formal recognition to the teaching of astrology. This is really a breakthrough. Why is it that in US teaching of astrology is being recognised by the Government? Answer is simple. The US academics have the courage to explore new fields, which makes their country a frontrunner in research and discoveries. Whereas our academics are timid and imitators who thrive on

borrowed learning from the West. They have still the Macaulay-mindset that regards 'that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India...? Given the conduct of the Indian academics in last century the opposition to teaching of astrology in Indian Universities would subside in direct proportion to its acceptability in Western Universities. So far the political opposition is concerned, it is not of much significance. With the dismantling of Communism in USSR, their Indian vassals have lost all self-confidence. Yet, they are keeping a brave front. When Digvijay Singh the Congress Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh came out in support of teaching astrology in University declaring 'Jyotir Vigyan is the science of astronomy and the world acknowledges India's intellectual leadership in this area' it sent a shock wave to all Leftists. They felt betrayed. For years the Communists had served as hatchet-bearers of

Congress party and constituted their shouting brigade against BJP. They had hoped that this 'astrology issue' would be an easy weapon to hit the BJP and get kudos from the Congress. So the remarks by the Congressman was a complete let down to them. Shabana Hashmi, Secretary of SAHMAT taxed to him. 'Your statement will only weaken the united resistance, that hundreds of academics, scientistsand educationists were able to build up over the last two months on communalisation of education?. Everyone knows that SAHMAT is a front organisation of CPI(M), and her letter to Digvijay Singh is a desperate appeal of a losing person. Shabana Hashmi has raised an issue in the letter that needs to be taken note of. She has contented that teaching of astrology will amount to 'communalisation of education'. Nothing can be more ridiculous than this. Given her reasoning, because Newton was a Christian, Newton's laws should be, Christian laws. Darwin's

'Theory of Evolution' is a Jewish theory because Darwin was a Jewish. All mathematics is communal because the numerals, the decimal system and the numerical place value system were invented by Hindus in India. Only a sick mind would think of dividing the knowledge on the basis of the religion of the people that discovered it. All knowledge is indivisible sacred property of all humanity, and any obnoxious effort to divide it on communal religious lines should be thwarted with utmost contempt it deserves.

[Guest guest]

Dear Kumar ji,

 

This article is an eye opener for many (I personally know many Big

people who consult Astrologers on the sly) who do not believe and to

those who just brush off ths great science as Superstition.

 

In our country actually - too much of liberism and powers given to these

pseudo secularists has paved way for banishing any suggestions from the

real educated class, to allow the subject of " Astrology " in the

University level. Unfortunatelt in Bombay too, this has happenned. Just

2 years ago we had the Education Board and State Govt. ready to open

classes in the campus for this, but these over-educated or

undernoursihed in the mind, blocked any movement ahead for this

proposal.

 

We have to live like this for another quarter of a century it seems till

the Astrologers of the coming generations do not prove their mettle and

create space for them to allot a important section to " Astrology " .

 

But before that, we too have to do something.

 

Lets see what I can do and my colleagues of this generation can do in

coming years. First we have to individually raise ourselves to the lofty

levels, so that our voices reaches the proper corridors, and heard,

for the changes to be effected. Rest god knows.

 

Bhaskar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

, S kumar <kumar_8134 wrote:

>

> Bhaskarji,

>

> Forwarding a posting from another group on a matter quite interesting

for believers and non-believers in Astrology.

>

>

> --- On Fri, 7/31/09, viji viji123 wrote:

>

>

> viji viji123

> [media_monitor5] Astrology needs no defence

> " viji " viji123

> Friday, July 31, 2009, 6:32 PM

Astrology needs no defence

>

> http://www.hvk. org/articles/ 0901/269. html

>

> Author: D P Sinha

> Publication: Organiser

> September 30, 2001

>

> Introduction: Why is it that in US teaching of astrology is being

recognised by the Government? Answer is simple. The US academics have

the courage to explore new fields, which makes their country a

frontrunner in research and discoveries. Whereas our academics are timid

and imitators who thrive on borrowed learning from the West.

>

> The University Grant Commission has made Astrology an elective subject

of study for Universities. The world ?elective? may be noted. It is left

to Universities to decide whether they would like to offer a course of

study in astrology. Yet Leftists and Anglophile liberals, deriving

legitimacy in this country from Nehruvian legacy, have created a

deafening din against introduction of these courses. Columns are full of

their sense of outrage and alarm-calls to save this country from sliding

into ancient times of Yajnas, Rishis and chariots. They would be shocked

to learn that their patron-saint Jawaharlal Nehru, the high priest of

'scientific temper' himself had succumbed, and surrendered to astrology,

the age-old wisdom of India as would the following excerpt from the book

India from Curzon to Nehru and After by Durga Das, former Editor,

Hindustan Times (1969) would show:

>

> 'The community of astrologers did not merely influence the hour when

independence of India should dawn. It shadowed most men in top

echelons-and continues to do so. In some cases, the ?royal Astrologers,

? as they came to be called, became all powerful. I found Satya Narayan

Sinha for several years Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and now.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting a delightful storehouse of

anecdotes in such matters.

>

> Sinha told me how he himself came to acquire faith in astrology. A

certain reader of horoscopes, derisively known as a 'patriwala?, had

forecast Patel's death nine months before it happened. The Sardar

himself was skeptical, and one night, during his accustomed telephone

conversation with Sinha about parliamentary matters, chaffed him asking:

?What does your 'patriwala? say?? The seer, however, proved right to the

exact day and we were all completely taken aback, said Sinha to me.

>

> When T.T.K. seemed to be at the peak of his power in 1958i came

another pundit to assert that he was riding for a fall. Sinha ridiculed

him, saying: ?You are talking: through your turban.' But the undaunted

man that very day made a still more dire prophecy that Shri

Krishnamachari quits. 'In the Government, Maulana Azad will suffer a

fall in his bathroom and die four days later.?

>

> When Azad met with an accident, B.C. Roy was summoned from Calcutta.

His verdict was that there was no cause for anxiety. Sinha met Nehru in

the lobby of the Parliament and told him of the prediction. Nehru

exploded angrily: ?What rot are you talking? Bidhan (Dr Roy) is certain

that Azad is in no danger.' Four days later, the Education Minister

passed away. Sinha recalled how shaken Nehru was after this.

>

> Nehru's first serious illness was in March 1962 when he returned to

Delhi from Poona running a high temperature. His doctors thought this

was merely the aftermath of an exhaustive election campaign. But it

turned out to be a grave ailment that confined him to bed for more than

a month and compelled him to keep away from the meeting of the Congress

Parliamentary Party in which he was re-elected leader.

>

> To Sinha?s first suggestion that his horoscope be shown to a Jyotishi

(astrologer) , Nehru turned a deaf ear. Gulzari Lal Nanda, the Planning

Mini prevailed upon him, however, to relent. There was an explosion when

the man, well-known in Delhi, told Nehru he would be betrayed by his

'best friend' and would have to face an attack from China that very

year. Nehru flared up and shouted: ?This can never happen. You are

talking bilge? The Jyotishi folded the horoscope, handed it back and

retreated.

>

> Not many weeks after, the Chinese launched their aggression. Nehru was

in h mood to listen to the astrologer. But the pundit's words were

hardly comforting. Nehru's life span was over, he pronounced. Only puja

(ritual worship) could prolong it. What followed was shrouded in the

utmost secrecy. Fifty learned priests were engaged by his admirers to

perform the prescribed rites at a temple at Kalkaji in Delhi. At the end

of the daily ceremonies, the Brahmin pundits repaired to the Prime

Minister residence to place an auspicious tilak mark on his forehead.

>

> The astrologer had predicted that Nehru would have a second and more

serious illness in January 1964 and that he would not survive beyond May

27. Sinha tried without success to dissuade Nehru from attending the

Bhubaneswar session of the Congress. Nehru left New Delhi on 4th January

and became very ill two or three days later. He never recovered fully

from the stroke he had at this time. At the AICC session on 14th May,

Sinha warned some of his cabinet colleagues that the Prime Minister was

likely to die ill about ten days as a jyotishi from Bombay had

predicted. Nehru passed away on 27th May'.

>

> I remember that in 1961, newspapers were full of Ashtagrah Yog

(conjunction of eight- planets) and its likely adverse effect on people

in general. Before the actual happening of the event in the skies, a

number of pujas and havans were organised all over the country to ward

off its evil influence. Pandit Nehru as usual reacted sharply and

ridiculed publicly this show of mass-hysteria and superstition on some

remote heavenly phenomenon occurring millions of miles away from us.

Nehru was at that time at the pinnacle of his power, an uncrowned king

and democratically elected. But Sampurnanand, the Chief Minister of

Uttar Pradesh and a recognised Sanskrit-scholar took up cudgels with

Nehru and issued a statement that planets do affect our lives and that

this Ashtagrah Yog is harmful to the country in general, and Nehru in

particular. It was a great feat on the part of Sampurnanand, a mere

chief Minister to challenge the mightiest of mighty in the country.

> But the events that unfolded in the country proved him right. India

was invaded by China. Nehru who strode the world as a colossus of peace

collapsed, his make-believe world lay in curmbles around him.

>

> In this context, the predictions with regard to Allahabad High Courts

Judgement setting side Indira Gandhi's election, followed by imposition

of Emergency and her days in wilderness after 1977, were foretold by a

clairvoyant, as reported by N.N. Palkhiwala in his book We and our

nation:

>

> ?On the plane which I boarded to return to Bombay, next to me was

seated an elderly, simple man dressed in khadi, carrying a khadi cloth

bag. He asked me what had happened that day in the Prime Minister's case

and I told him briefly what the judge had decided. He related how he was

an inmate of a Gandhi ashram in Bangalore and that he had been out of

the ashram since May 1975 to conduct one of his periodic tours in

different parts of India. He mentioned the name of a clairvoyant in

Bangalore who had made some predictions which he thought were rather

curious. The conversation between us ran somewhat as follows:

>

> ?When I left the ashram in May 1975 the clairvoyant told me that the

Prime Minister would lose the case which she was fighting in the

Allahabad High Court and yet after losing the case, she would become the

most powerful woman in the world,? said my neighbour.

>

> In surprise I asked, 'How can Smt Indira Gandhi become any more

powerful than she is today? When she is already the head of the largest

democracy on earth, what can possibly add to her power??

>

> ?I do not know. I am only repeating to you what he said?.

>

> Unimpressed, I did not bother even to make a mental note of the name

of the clairvoyant. But to carry on the conversation, I asked, ?did the

soothsayer say anything else??

>

> ?Yes. He said that the extraordinary power which the Prime Minister is

to acquire will end in March 1977.?

>

> 'Did he mention the precise month and year?'

>

> ?Yes, he mentioned specifically that the cessation of the

extraordinary power would be in March 1977.?

>

> ?Did he make any other prediction??

>

> ?Yes he said that Jayapraksh Narayan who is today the most popular

figure in India?s public life would be stricken by a fatal illness which

would carry him away in about two years. He said that Shri Y. B. Chavan

who aspires to be the Prime Minister of India would never attain that

position.?

>

> I came home, wondering what the would bring. In less than 36 hours the

emergency was declared, the invaluable fundamental rights of the people

were suspended, and the Prime Minister virtually acquired all the powers

of the leader of a totalitarian state. That was the black morning of

June 26, 1975.

>

> In the days immediately following the declaration of the Emergency, my

mind kept on reverting to the four forecasts. I invited for a quiet

dinner at my residence the then Editor of The Times of India and a very

few other well-known journalists and related to them my conversation

with the Gandhian ashramite in the plane. The next month I repeated the

story to Ramnath Goenka of the Indian Express, who was literally hounded

by the Congress government during the Emergency. Those were the days of

gloom and despair, and the only streak of light was the prediction that

the totalitarianism would end in March 1977. I need hardly mention that

all the predictions were accurately fulfilled-the assumption of

supremacy which made Smt Indira Gandhi the most powerful woman in the

world, the cessation of that supremacy in March 1977, the death of

Jayparakash Narayan in October 1979, and Shri Y. B. Chavan dying in

November 1984 without fulfilling his ambition of becoming

> the Prime Minister.

>

> I did not meet Smt Gandhi again till the evening of March 22, 1977

when the results of the election showed that the Janata Party had won a

landslide victory and Smt Gandhi had to resign as the Prime Minister. I

was in Delhi on flat day and called on Smt Gandhi at her residence. I

related to her the incident of my conversation with the total stranger

on the plane in June 1975 and said, 'Indiraji, if it be any consolation,

may I tell you that what has happened since the election case was filed

against you in the Allahabad High Court seems to have been preordained.

? She had tears in her eyes -the only time saw her in such a mood.?

>

> Ever since the UGC has allowed Universities to teach astrology,

vociferous objections have been raised at two levels. One, at the

academic level and the other at the political one.

>

> Not all, but some academics have urged that astrology is not a

science, therefore it does not deserve a place in a University

curriculum. This is a diversionary argument. Whether Astrology is a

science is of no material consequence. Even if astrology is not a

science, it still deserves to be taught to those who want to study it,

like any other humanities subject. The State has no justifiable right to

prohibit it in a democracy. Further, the debate whether astrology is a

science or an art is meaningless at a point of time, where the

water-tight compartments of knowledge am being rejected.

Inter-disciplinary approach is the order of the day.

>

> There are scores of institutions in and outside India that are already

teaching astrology in India. Does all those people slipped backwards and

their society became fatalist? Apprehensions of Left-academics in

unfounded in this regard.

>

> On August 27, 2001 Washington Post reported that the 'Accrediting

Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology' has given

accreditation to Astrological Institute located in suburban Phoenix in

Arizona, USA and has become eligible to get federal grants from US

Education Department. It is for the first time that US Government has

given such formal recognition to the teaching of astrology. This is

really a breakthrough.

>

> Why is it that in US teaching of astrology is being recognised by the

Government? Answer is simple. The US academics have the courage to

explore new fields, which makes their country a frontrunner in research

and discoveries. Whereas our academics are timid and imitators who

thrive on borrowed learning from the West. They have still the

Macaulay-mindset that regards 'that a single shelf of a good European

library was worth the whole native literature of India...? Given the

conduct of the Indian academics in last century the opposition to

teaching of astrology in Indian Universities would subside in direct

proportion to its acceptability in Western Universities.

>

> So far the political opposition is concerned, it is not of much

significance. With the dismantling of Communism in USSR, their Indian

vassals have lost all self-confidence. Yet, they are keeping a brave

front. When Digvijay Singh the Congress Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh

came out in support of teaching astrology in University declaring

'Jyotir Vigyan is the science of astronomy and the world acknowledges

India's intellectual leadership in this area' it sent a shock wave to

all Leftists. They felt betrayed. For years the Communists had served as

hatchet-bearers of Congress party and constituted their shouting brigade

against BJP. They had hoped that this 'astrology issue' would be an easy

weapon to hit the BJP and get kudos from the Congress. So the remarks by

the Congressman was a complete let down to them. Shabana Hashmi,

Secretary of SAHMAT taxed to him. 'Your statement will only weaken the

united resistance, that hundreds of academics, scientists

> and educationists were able to build up over the last two months on

communalisation of education?. Everyone knows that SAHMAT is a front

organisation of CPI(M), and her letter to Digvijay Singh is a desperate

appeal of a losing person.

>

> Shabana Hashmi has raised an issue in the letter that needs to be

taken note of. She has contented that teaching of astrology will amount

to 'communalisation of education'.

>

> Nothing can be more ridiculous than this. Given her reasoning, because

Newton was a Christian, Newton's laws should be, Christian laws.

Darwin's 'Theory of Evolution' is a Jewish theory because Darwin was a

Jewish. All mathematics is communal because the numerals, the decimal

system and the numerical place value system were invented by Hindus in

India. Only a sick mind would think of dividing the knowledge on the

basis of the religion of the people that discovered it. All knowledge is

indivisible sacred property of all humanity, and any obnoxious effort to

divide it on communal religious lines should be thwarted with utmost

contempt it deserves.

>