Elections are the most important thing in a democracy. And if you look at any news channel at the moment, they have become supersonic, and especially loud in their election coverage.
Result predictions are inextricably linked with elections and Indians love their astrologers. More often than not, most households have a family astrologer who carefully looks at every person’s kundali (horoscope) to make predictions that include when they’ll get married, have kids or earn more money.
In keeping with every household tradition, Aaj Tak allotted 100 astrologers to a country of 1.2 billion people to predict the result of the upcoming elections.
“The world is looking at analysis, the world is looking at numbers, but we are looking at the stars of our country’s politicians and the country.”The Aaj Tak anchor
The anchor makes it very clear that the channel will be speaking with 100 astrologers all day today, 5 April. So essentially, a mainstream channel has dedicated one full day to just predictions, that too of 100 variety!
One often associates journalism with facts, research – perhaps why it is called the fourth pillar of democracy. Yet, a mainstream channel chooses to spend one full day on predictions that have no way of being verified or fact-checked.
The channel could have actually focused on: unemployment, women’s security, gender-based violence, or just come up with day-long fictional content and called it so.
Astrologers Call The Election in Modi’s Favour
Sridhar Pandey, an astrologer from Varanasi says:
“The current phase is extremely auspicious for PM Modi, however after 14 May, both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi are going to do something massive.”
Shiromani Sachin, another astrologer chimes in to declare PM Modi a winner:
“From 15 April, a very auspicious time is going to come into PM Modi’s life. His stars are in his favour and it will propel him towards victory.”
Vedvyas from Ujjain too was in agreement with atleast 60 of them, he too felt that the stars were truly in PM Modi’s court:
Everything in his kundali at the moment is in his favour. He will be the next PM of India.
A day-long show, based on no facts, masquerading as news, is not something that the country needs at the moment.
We’re sitting at a time where WhatsApp has had to change its functionality to ebb the fake news flow in India. In such a climate, a long feature on predictions that may or may not come true at all, based on stars can hamper the thinking of a nation rather than give it food for thought.
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