Crystal Ball/K N Rao

A vengeful saga -- the Indian judiciary takes on the executive

For the first time, a serious, research-based astrological journal called The Journal of Astrology has been launched in India. One of the articles -- a treatise on world changes from 327 BC to 2002 AD -- has received a lot of publicity because it predicts increasing hostility between the Russia-China combine and the US in the days to come.

We will revert to the days of the Cold War, with one important difference -- the hostility will no longer be concealed. Our world has to prepare itself to face much devastation and change in the next five years.

In India, the confrontation between the judiciary and Parliament will become a tale of revenge. The courts might come out with judgments that will end the careers of many politicians. Included in this list is one particular politician who had privately dubbed last year's judicial activism as judicial terrorism. This time, though, it will not be a tale of judicial triumph.

But retrograde Mars, in the lagna of the New Year horoscope beginning April 7, does not show tame judicial acceptance of the situation. In the open battle that follows, guilty politicians already in the legal dock will have a hard time. Kalpnath Rai and P V Narasimha Rao have already felt the sting of the judiciary. As far as Rao's horoscope is concerned, both the eclipse of his career and a jail-going combination loom ominously.

The house of marriage shows that the US will enforce strict legislation to restrict the inflow of immigrants. 'Business marriages', contracted by girls who work either in drug trade or in restaurants in the US with immigrants (particularly from East European countries), will no longer be an easy source of green cards. The girls themselves, who charge thousands of dollars for such a deal, will lose their lucrative income.

Meanwhile, elections are to be held in England on May 1. Though I do not have the horoscopes of John Major or any of their political parties, we can still make astrological predictions on the basis of the planetary position of 10 am, London, on May 1.

The position shows that Gemini is rising and Mars is in the third house aspecting the moon in Aquarius while Saturn and Ketu have settled in the 10th house, which represents the party in power. Jupiter, the 10th lord, represents Major will face a lot of disgrace.

I am sure that the opinion polls, which are slated to arrive in a few weeks, will not be positive for the ruling Conservative party since the scales are heavily tilted against the party in power.

In the Indian context, one would be tempted to say that the elections would be heavily rigged. In England, though, they will come very close to rigging, violence and character assassination. Chances are that England will remember it as one of her most awful elections in recent memory.

All this is a clear pointer to the fact that an aggressive press will expose a scandal, with international repercussions. Another scandal, involving a bank or a scam of the kind that is becoming familiar to us Indians, will also hit the headlines. The party in power, led by Major, is headed for a humiliating defeat.