The Election Commission of India has prohibited the country's media from publishing election forecasts made by astrologers, clairvoyants, fortune-tellers, sorcerers and other people who can receive such information from above. From now on, Indian print media, radio stations and TV channels will not be able to publish such forecasts 48 hours before the start of the voting and even after it.
Quite a strange bill, considering that the Republic of India is a secular state. Perhaps this is all to blame for the fact that ordinary Indians are very superstitious and firmly believe in any predictions of authoritative sensitivities. If a well-known medium prophesies that this or that person will win the elections, then many citizens can go and vote for this particular candidate only for the reason that in the future he has already allegedly won, and therefore deserves all kinds of support in the present. It turns out, so to speak, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Indian officials refuse to argue clearly for a new ban. Nevertheless, according to them, astrologers and psychics are not authoritative enough specialists who can speak publicly about elections, and therefore they simply bring confusion and chaos into this process, which is in no way acceptable. The local newspaper, Dainik Jagran, has already fallen out of favor with the authorities thanks to the new law, as its employees recently decided to predict the results of elections to the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh, although they did not call themselves clairvoyants or rely on any prophecies. The publication is likely to face a heavy fine. However, the new law even provides for the closure of one or another publishing house …