Reiterating that astrology has flopped miserably once again, Narendra Nayak, president, Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA), said here on Wednesday that astrologers and others claiming having powers of predictions have failed in an open challenge thrown at them on May 26 this year.
The challenge was in response to the Tambula Prashne ritual organised by pro-Hindutva organisations led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, to find out a solution to the controversy that erupted after a temple-like structure was noticed during the renovation of a mosque in Malali, near Ganjimutt, on the outskirts of the city last month.
The FIRA had announced ₹1 lakh as prize for correct entries and none could win it.
Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Nayak said that as per the challenge, the FIRA had sealed seven envelops in the order of one to seven and the contents in each envelop were unknown to FIRA. The astrologers and others claiming having prediction powers were asked to predict the contents in each envelop. The last date for receiving the entries was May 31, 2022.
Stating that the FIRA received four entries and none of these could predict the content in each one of the envelops, he reiterated: astrology has flopped miserably once again.
Mr. Nayak opened all seven envelops in the presence of presspersons at Mangaluru Patrika Bhavan. In the order of one to seven, the first envelop was empty, the second one had a currency note of U.S. $1 denomination and the third contained currency note of the denomination of 10 Dirham. The fourth envelop had Nepal Rashtra Bank’s currency note of 20 denomination and the fifth one had a currency note of Singapore $ of 10 denomination. The sixth envelop had a paper written on one side: “astrology has flopped miserably once again”. Another side of the same paper mentioned that the envelop had been sealed at 11.33 a.m. on May 26, 2022.
The seventh envelop had Indian currency note of ₹10 denomination.
“The FIRA reiterates its commitment to Article 51 of the Constitution and shall continue its efforts to develop scientific temper,” he said.
