Promoting Scientific
Temper amidsts Religious mumbo-jumbo
[An article under the title Deathly Design by Ambresh Mishra appeared in India Today on March 10, 2008. We asked Dr. V.Sundara Rajulu, Professional Engineer for his comments on the Vaastu aspects mentioned in the article. We give here the article as well as the comments]
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It is an award-winning marvel of avant-
garde architecture, not a dark, dank,
dungeon-type structure associated with ghouls and gremlins. But the architectural wonder that is the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha still spooks some legislators. A bunch of lawmakers fears that the assembly building, designed by renowned architect Charles Correa, is a virtual death trap. Twenty-one sitting MLAs have died since the Assembly shifted to its new hill-top address in the mid-90s.
Apparently, legislators believe that vaastu shastra, or the lack of it, in the lay-out and design has come to haunt the new building. The clamour for corrections in the design in accordance with the ancient Indian architectural and building code has become strong ever since the school and college education minister and Indore’s posterboy for Hindutva, Laxman Singh Gaud died in a road accident on February 11. Just days before Gaud’s demise, a former minister in the BJP Government and MLA from Byohari constituency Kunwar Luvkesh Singh had died on February 8. During the past four years of the 12th term of the Vidhan Sabha, six of its sitting members have passed away. During the partial 10th term of the Vidhan Sabha in the new building, three sitting legislators died. The toll during the last term, the 11th, was 12.
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Some of these deaths have been especially violent. While another former minister and MLA from Pandhana, Kishorilal Verma was stabbed to death by a former member of his staff, Gaud met his end when the government allotted Qualis he was riding rammed into a dumper on the Ashta-Dewas bypass road. At a special cabinet meeting convened in Bhopal on February 13 to condole Gaud’s death, many ministers raised the issue of the perceived faults in the vaastu of the building.
State Public Works Department Minister Kailash Vijayavargiya - who last year demanded a ban on condoms, being marketed by Hindustan Latex labelling them as sex toys - has already written to state Assembly Speaker Ishwardas Rohani in this regard. Says Vijayavargya, “Top vaastu shastris in the country should be invited to study the design and suggest remedial measures. We can then try to correct the anomalies as far as possible.” Even the main opposition party, the Congress, and other parties are in agreement with the ruling party on this issue.
The Samajwadi Party, not normally associated with the trappings of ancient Hindu traditions, has, in fact, taken a lead in this regard. The party’s state unit president and MLA., Narayan Tripathi held a yagna at the MLA Rest House on February 16 to rid the building of the evil spell. It isn’t the first religious ceremony of its kind according to Vidhan Sabha officials. Some time after the building was commissioned in the mid-90s, the erstwhile housing and environment minister Satyanarayan Sharma had taken the lead in performing rituals to correct the vaastu dosh (violations).
When the building was first designed and built in the early 1990s, vaastu was not quite the rage it is today. Its exceptional design even won the world’s biggest recognition for architectural excellence, the $5,00,000 (Rs. 2 crore) Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1998. However, the exponents of vaastu shastra disagree with some of the key features of its design, especially the fact that its main entrance faces the south. Says Dharamdas B.J.D., a leading vaastu practitioner in the State. “The entrance should be from the east or north-east. Besides, some other features are off key like the shape of the dome. This is a recipe for disaster as it denies the occupants peace of mind and, worse still, causes death.”
Rationalists, however, beg to differ. Arun Bhargava of the NGO Science Centre (Gwalior), which coordinates Children’s Science Congress activities across the state, says, “This isn’t about faults in architectural design but about avoidable human errors. Gaud was driving without a pilot car as prescribed by the protocol.” Incidentally, all the six legislators who have died were from BJP and, bar one, all were sitting or former ministers. Asks Bhargava sarcastically, “So does it mean that being a BJP MLA or a member of the Shivraj Singh Chauhan Cabinet is hazardous to one’s life and limb?”
Speaker Rohani has been wary of commissioning any correctional exercises lest it be taken that he was promoting or giving credence to religious mumbo-jumbo. The Constitution enjoins the state through the Directive Principles of State Policy to promote a scientific - temper. Being associated with anything that can be tagged superstitious claptrap can put a body like the Vidhan Sabha in a sticky situation. Responding to the demands, Rohani says guardedly, “Life and death are in the hands of the supreme power”. As the debate rages, MLAs of Madhya Pradesh are keeping their fingers crossed.
Dr.V.Sundararajul, Professional Engineer, explains:
1. The Minister died in a road accident. In what way the building is responsible when the accident occurred on the road and with motor car?
2. Only Architects and Engineers should be asked to find out the defects, in any, and correct them. But no defect is found in the Building scientifically. Vaastu Pundits are not at all connected with the building technology or science. Vaastu Pandits are connected with belief, superstitious ideas and with pseudo-science.
3. When it is said that life and death are in the hands of the supreme power why should they blame the buildings, Architects and Engineers when nothing had happened to the building or the inmates when they were inside the building.
4. Yagna was held and rituals were performed already to correct the “defects” after the occurrence of deaths, that too, outside the building. Why do they have further fear now after Yagna? Have Yagna and rituals become useless to prevent further death? If it is so, then why do they run after that?
5. They say Vaastu is all the rage today. What does it mean? People have become weak-minded and subjected to unreasonable fears. This makes them to believe in all sorts of superstitions. So the need of the hour is spread knowledge and instill the spirit of scientific temper. Then they will lose faith in Vaastu sashtra.
6. They want to change the entrance of Vidhan Sabha since the Vaastu vibrations make disturbance to peace of mind and it may cause death. This is not scientifically true. How? Vaastu is a pseudo science with all superstitious ideas. We should have scientific temper and not foolish emotions. We should try to live with knowledge and not with beliefs that are neither verified nor verifiable.
7. We should also note that the vaastu pandits have given suggestions with the help of Hindutva related people and Hindutva ideas. |
