Astrology Is Not a Hunch: Astrologers Pass for Doctors in Bhopal

Horoscopes and kundalis will be among the mainstays of the facility.

Astrologers – with no academic degree in medicine whatsoever – will now be diagnosing illnesses and providing medical help in Bhopal.

The government-run Maharishi Patanjali Sanskrit Sansthan (MPSS) is setting up an ‘astro Out-Patient Department (OPD)’, where patients can consult astrologers, soothsayers, palmists and vaastu experts, according to The New Indian Express. Claiming that they are an OPD in name only, the Director of MPSS said:

We are only giving it the name of astro OPD, and in no way will it be any kind of medical OPD to be operated at hospital.

PR Tiwari, director, MPSS

Although this begs the question of why it must be called an OPD at all.

This ‘astro OPD’ will operate out of the Yoga Centre building situated close to the Red Cross building in Bhopal – it will be run by faculty members who will, in addition to advising patients, teach aspiring astrologers under three annual diploma courses – astrology, vaastu and paurohitya (priesthood).

Horoscopes and kundalis will be among the mainstays of this facility that ostensibly dispenses medical advice to the sick and vulnerable.

The OPD will help to establish that astrology is not a hunch, but a calculative science. The astrologers will study the planetary combinations at the exact time the questions are asked to arrive at the right astrological solution.

Tiwari to The New Indian Express

MP’s Health Ministry Mum on Pseudo-OPDs

MPSS – although run by the Madhya Pradesh government – does not fall under the purview of the health ministry. In fact, it is the state’s education ministry that is responsible for the body.

Still, the health ministry stayed mum on this new practice. They merely called out news reports for misreporting that astrologers will operate out of hospitals (when in fact they will operate from the Yoga Centre), calling the reports ‘absurd' – but they did not comment on the fact that they are operating under the guise of offering medical advice at all.

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