Supermen love superstition. Or so it seems in Karnataka politics. Yeddyurappa — named after a god; benefactor of temples; pilgrim of occult exotica from the sites of donkey sacrifice to the famous Rajarajeshwari temple in Taliparamba in Kannur district, Kerala — fears black magic is afoot, to bring him to a grisly end; if not politically at least personally. His nemesis and Voldemort is none other than senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah who is so offended by what he calls “character assassination” by the Karnataka chief minister he has threatened to drag Yeddy to court.
The shadowy world of politics has always been inhabited by dubious practitioners of the occult, upon whose advice, it is whispered in the corridors of power, politicians perform nocturnal rituals and pujas, wear saris to bed (as the late NTR did), wear talismans and visit powerful temples. Remember Dhirendra Brahmachari and Chandraswamy?
These days, the action has shifted to Karnataka; the current occult calendar going back to the eve of the trust vote on October 10, 2010. Within the Vidhana Soudha premises surfaced a voodoo doll, a lemon pierced with nails, chopped chicken heads and entrails, eggs, blood, vermillion and strings of coloured thread strewn all over.
Obviously, the architects of these bizarre acts still remain anonymous. Fingers in Bangalore were pointed at two political leaders and their families — chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda. Both issued denials. Hushed whispers flew in and around the house — were these mysterious objects placed by some ghoulish hand though the gates were closed and the building heavily guarded? The obvious question, however is, how could it have happened without the complicity of the state security agencies?
The feng-shui of Kannada politics didn’t stop there: the gates of the Vidhana Soudha were shut and entry was allowed only through the western gate on the day of the trust vote. Inside the Legislative Assembly hall, Yeddyurappa had ordered that the eastern door stay closed.
Bangalore’s Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari had a lame explanation — it was done for security purposes. The political grapevine has a different story: the CM had directed the police to close the gates, purportedly acting on advice from his astrologers. The government’s supporters hit back with counter-spells: bangles, a handful of vermilion and turmeric, a lemon pierced with four nails and a yantra inscribed on a silver plaque were found at the Raj Bhavan gates, where Yeddy’s arch enemy H R Bharadwaj lives as governor.
Two police cases were subsequently registered at Vidhana Soudha against persons unknown. Similarly, the day after Congress leader Siddaramaiah and former CM H D Kumaraswamy met at former the union minister CM Ibrahim’s residence, similar objects were found outside Ibrahim’s house.
Yeddyurappa’s obsession with dark magic is nothing new. In 2007, when Deve Gowda’s JD (S) refused to hand over power to its partner the BJP, Yeddy had levelled similar charges and had announced that he would write in his will that Deve Gowda and his sons should be held responsible if he were to die suddenly. Yeddyurappa claimed he also knew of places where “maata-mantra,” (black magic) took place and threatened to lodge a complaint against ‘voodoo’ with the state home department.
Black magic plagues Yeddy’s political journeys. In 2008, when he took a helicopter to Shimoga, his home district for the first time after becoming chief minister, slices of lemon, smears of vermillion and other substances supposedly used in tantric practices were found on the helipad premises. The police immediately cleaned up the site, but it didn’t stop a worried Yeddyurappa from going on a temple visit spree to avoid the influence of evil spirits.
Speaking to politicians in Karnataka, who, for obvious reasons do not wish to be quoted, stories about leaders performing occult pujas to defeat and hurt rivals abound. BJP leaders say Deve Gowda’s frequent temple visits, special pujas and homas performed by him have given the Gowdas a reputation for black magic.
Ironically, many great similarities unite bitter rivals Yeddy and the Gowdas. Sources say that the pious Yeddyurappa’s obsession with black magic, increased during periods of political uncertainty in 2007 and again when he came to precarious power in 2008 with the help of five independent MLAs.
Yeddy’s close associates confess that the chief minister now visits each and every temple in Karnataka, Kerala; and also Jammu’s fabled Vaishno Devi which is a favourite with the Gowdas as well. Like a hound upon a scent, Yeddy makes it a point to go to temples and holy places where the Gowdas have gone before.
Political legend has it that Yeddy and Gowda are only the latest in the long list of Karnataka politicians who have a penchant for the black arts.
In the 1970s, congressmen in the state accused former chief minister Devraj Urs of resorting to black magic to settle scores against Indira Gandhi after a political falling out.
Political sources say that most leading Karnataka politicos — including former chief ministers like S Bangarappa, S M Krishna, Dharam Singh, H D Kumaraswamy and Yeddyurappa — have their personal astrologers and priests who claim to smooth the way for them in the astral realm. The exceptions are former chief ministers Veerendra Patil, Ramakrishna Hegde, J H Patel, S R Bommai and present Union law minister M Veerappa Moily.
Since, 1994, Deve Gowda’s name, for instance, has been associated in one way or the other with the occult, especially after he became Karnataka’s chief minister.
After stepping down as prime minister, Gowda lost from the Hassan Parliamentary constituency and was in political wilderness for a while till early 2002. Just prior to the death of the then sitting Congress Lok Sabha member M V Chandrashekharmurthy, his arch rival and former minister, Congressman D K Shivakumar publicly accused Deve Gowda of performing black magic by sacrificing a donkey to harm the MP. By a bizarre coincidence, the MP, a cancer patient died towards the end of 2001. A few months later, Gowda contested and won the Kanakapura Lok Sabha bye-election. However, if his own party colleagues are to be believed, Shivakumar is a black magic aficionado himself — a charge he denies. Inquiries reveal that the use of black magic by politicians cuts across party, region and caste lines in Karnataka.
Deve Gowda denies resorting to black magic. He says he believes in god, is religious and performs pujas as these are part of ancient Hindu tradition. “I neither believe in witchcraft nor have I ever indulged in it,”he says.
Incidentally, Gowda’s son, former minister of public works department and energy H D Revanna has the reputation of being the most superstitious politician in Karnataka as he refuses to speak during Rahukala and does not sign any files on amavasya (new-moon day) and pournami (full-moon day).
In 2007 at the State Assembly, Revanna raised objections with Speaker Krishna for allowing a debate during a rahukala considered inauspicious. There are even instances of him abruptly winding up press conferences as rahukala begins or made scribes wait in order for the inauspicious time to end.
Allegations of witchcraft reached bizarre proportions when Yeddyurappa in 2007 alleged that former ministers C Byre Gowda, K N Nage Gowda and Y K Ramaiah died because Deve Gowda hexed them, an accusation echoed by Nage Gowda’s and Ramaiah’s family.
The Gowdas and Yeddyurappas are not the only ones with such Harry Potter reputations. Former primary and secondary education minister H Vishwanath also landed in hot water when he personally sacrificed a goat at the Marikamba temple after he became a minister in the SM Krishna government, fulfilling a part of a religious vow.
Oracles are legion among Karnataka politicians who reportedly act according to occult advice. Sometimes, even peace between political rivals, can be brokered using augurers. Karnataka and the other southern states also have myriad temples that prescribe specific rituals for various purposes.
Politicians are fervent devotees. When external affairs minister SM Krishna was Karnataka’s chief minister, (1999-2004) he visited Chowdeshwari temple at Dasarighatta near Tipatur, around 145 km from Bangalore, where the deity Chowdeshwari was known for writing down its predictions in rice flour.
The deity, made of a panchaloha idol, writes a reply if a question is asked orally or even in one’s mind. Two spiritual villagers (who are illiterate) pick up the deity and write as if possessed. The head of the deity will write down effortlessly on a rice flour base.
It is reported that when Krishna entered the precincts, accompanied by a bureaucrat who was on his staff at that point, the deity wrote asking that the officer’s posting not be changed! Upon his return from the temple, Krishna is said to have quipped: “If the gods take up political administration, what should politicians do?”
Years later, when he was Governor of Maharashtra, Krishna made a trip to Paris to watch the French Open — much against the advice of his astrologers. When upon his return, he fell ill and had to be rushed to the Jaslok hospital directly from Chatrapati Shivaji Airport in Mumbai and admitted to the ICU, tongues wagged that he was paying the price for having annoyed the planets.
On the eve of his departure for Paris, Krishna had been warned by his astrologers that a shathrusamhara yagna (a pooja meant to eliminate enemies) had been performed against him in a place close to the Karnataka-Kerala border by his rivals. After his recovery, a much-chastised Krishna visited several temples in Tamil Nadu and performed rituals that included burning a gunny bag full of red chillies to ostensibly counteract the effects of any black magic performed against him.
When nothing is going right, politicians seem to turn to ‘vamaachara’ — use of evil spirits against rivals. Astrologers, black magicians, priests rule the roost in the state.
— rajashekhara@expressbuzz.com
One nail for each of the rebels
THE MAGICAL LEMON
In November 2007, Yeddyurappa seeking a trust vote hoped that his truculent former-partner H D Kumaraswamy would extend him support at the last minute. According to JD (S) sources, Kumaraswamy was sitting in the Speakers’
ante-chamber looking completely lost; apparently he had kept a lemon — allegedly given by his elder brother, the present JD (S) legislature party leader HD Revanna — in his pocket. Kumaraswamy’s associates say that he wanted to support the BJP government but the bewitched lemon stopped him.
FEAR OF REVERSE EFFECT
It is an open secret that political leaders favour specific priests and tantrics. Most of the Congress leaders from the days of late Devraj Urs to Dharam Singh depended more or less on the astrologer Dwarakanath while Deve Gowda had Ravinarayan as his astrologer. Even the present Union rural development minister and former
Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh visited these astrologers several times for a consultation. After the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, Deshmukh was in Bangalore to consult with them.
WHAT OTHER FEARS
According to a few independent MLAs, the lemon found at the Vidhana Soudha on the eve of trust vote was pierced with 16 nails indicating the number of rebel MLAs which was also 16 — five independents and 11 BJP legislators. An MLA alleges that the chief minister gave photographs of the rebels to a sorcerer from Kerala to perform black magic against them. “We discovered this and went to the same tantric and reversed the trick on Yeddyurappa,” he says. “The CM is afraid of reverse action and and you will see the effects shortly.’’
Venues of worship
The temples of Kannur and Kasargod districts in north Kerala are celebrity magnets — politicians in trouble from all over the peninsula seek succour there. The Rajarajeswara temple in Taliparamaba, Kannur, where the presiding deity is Lord Shiva, grabbed headlines when AIDMK leader J Jayalaithaa came to make votive offerings when faced with a political crisis. Politicians from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu followed. Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa offered an elephant calf to the temple when he was the deputy chief minister. As subsequent crises unfolded, he became a habitual devotee of the goddess. Magical intervention became political action when Yeddy supporters visited the Mannampurathkavu temple in Neeleswaram, Kasargod to make arrangements for a sathrusamhara puja— believed to result in the annihilation of one’s enemies— though the chief minister never put in a personal appearance. On December 9, 2010 Karnakata minister Sobha Karandlaje, considered close to Yeddy, came to Mannampurathkavu to offer a ‘valiyapuja,’ which according to the temple priests aids in domestic harmony. M K Damodaran, a well-known Kannur numerologist, says the sathrusamhara puja isn’t about the
destruction of enemies and isn’t black magic — the puja converts enemies into sympathisers. Many Devi temples of North Malabar — Kalarivathukkal temple in Valapattanam, the Mamanam temple in Irikkur, the Mannambath kavu in Neeleswram, the Madyi Kavu, Mundayamraramba temple in Iritty—are venues for ‘sathrusamhara.’