KOLLEGAL (CHAMRAJNAGAR): It’s height ballot season and a dozen sorcerers are busy drawing up lists of their wares: goats, pigeons, crows and chicken that will likely be sacrificed over the next few days in Kollegal, 140km from IT hub Bengaluru.
Under the cover of darkness, the sleepy the town’s magicians quietly pass about ‘praying’ and casting spells from about 6 pm to nighttime in the forests and at the banks of the Cauvery to bring applicants success. And this in spite of the 2017 Karnataka Prevention and Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic Bill.
The magic starts off as a prayer whispered into the ears of the nominees: be it any celebration. The sorcerers — who insist on being referred to as ‘worshippers’ — receive requests for prayers in Kannada, ‘maata mantra’, to curry favour with deities to strike alliances and devise votepulling strategies at about Rs 20,000 a prayer.
Come sunlight, it’s again to canvassing and distancing themselves from any talk of black magic. No one is prepared to talk about the Bill the Congress government managed to go ultimate 12 months. “Even if I’m approached, I don’t use these services. Congress can win polls on its own. I represented BJP in Lok Sabha polls in 2009 and 2014 however moved to Congress because of non-adherence to such issues,” Congress nominee A R Krishnamurthy told TOI. BJP candidate G N Nanjundaswami refused even to talk about the Bill. “There is not any such black magic in Karnataka. The query of countering or approving doesn’t arise,” he stated.
Under the cover of darkness, the sleepy the town’s magicians quietly pass about ‘praying’ and casting spells from about 6 pm to nighttime in the forests and at the banks of the Cauvery to bring applicants success. And this in spite of the 2017 Karnataka Prevention and Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic Bill.
The magic starts off as a prayer whispered into the ears of the nominees: be it any celebration. The sorcerers — who insist on being referred to as ‘worshippers’ — receive requests for prayers in Kannada, ‘maata mantra’, to curry favour with deities to strike alliances and devise votepulling strategies at about Rs 20,000 a prayer.
Come sunlight, it’s again to canvassing and distancing themselves from any talk of black magic. No one is prepared to talk about the Bill the Congress government managed to go ultimate 12 months. “Even if I’m approached, I don’t use these services. Congress can win polls on its own. I represented BJP in Lok Sabha polls in 2009 and 2014 however moved to Congress because of non-adherence to such issues,” Congress nominee A R Krishnamurthy told TOI. BJP candidate G N Nanjundaswami refused even to talk about the Bill. “There is not any such black magic in Karnataka. The query of countering or approving doesn’t arise,” he stated.
In voodoo town, politicos mum on black magic Bill
![In voodoo town, politicos mum on black magic Bill]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
May 04, 2018
Rating:
