Is vaastu the reason for the continuous depreciation of the Indian RupeeIJ The steady fall in the value of the Rupee since the Union Government adopted the new emblem in 2010 has made astrologers and vaastu experts wave a red flag.
“There is something seriously wrong with the symbol representing the Rupee. The two parallel lines atop the Devanagari script R are neither auspicious nor pleasing to the eyes. The parallel lines indicate stagnation and capping of growth. Ever since the symbol designed by Udaya Kumar was accepted by the Indian Government in 2010, the Rupee has suffered setbacks after setbacks,” eminent astrologist Parappanagadi Unnikrishna Panicker, told The Pioneer on Saturday.
Panicker has been expressing his apprehensions to all Government officials and business honchos who call on him for astrological advices. “But, sadly, for our people, terms like astrology and vaastu are just reactionary and majority communalism,” said Panicker.
According to Panicker, whose clientele includes former Sri lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, the symbol depicting the Rupee does not inspire or invoke confidence. “The symbol has been selected without taking into consideration it’s aesthetic value. Since the day the symbol was adopted by the Finance Ministry, the Rupee has been falling continuously and now has been downgraded by international rating agencies,” Panicker pointed out.
“Symbols of the US Dollar and the British Pound stand out because of their symmetry and the aesthetically pleasing design. It could be the reason for their strength and resilience,” opined Panicker. Ram Sagar Thampuran, an astrologer based in Kollam also echoed the same sentiments. “Though India had faced much severe economic recessions in the past, at no point of time did the Indian Rupee suffer a fall like this. The fall of the Rupee became a regular affair only after the adoption of the new symbol,” said Thampuran. He said the Japanese Yen and the Euro too suffer the same depreciation as faced by the Indian Rupee.
“Please note the similarity between the symbols of the Indian Rupee and these currencies,” he pointed out.
Rajkumar Jhanjhari, a vaastu expert based in Guwahati, had sounded the warning about the faulty design of the Rupee as early as May this year. He claims the lower horizontal line was against the rules of vaastu. “This line has slit the throat of the Rupee and should be removed,” Jhanjhari had told the media.
The symbol of the Rupee was adopted in 2010 as part of the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's grand plan to make the Indian currency a global brand. The Union Government had stipulated that the new symbol should have the ethos and culture of India. The present symbol was designed by Udaya Kumar, an architect. It was announced at the time of incorporating the symbol that the horizontal bars atop the letter R reflected the national tri-colour.
The fall of the Indian Rupee against international currencies became more intense since 2010 when the new design was declared as the official symbol of the national currency. Udaya Kumar, an assistant professor at IIT Guwahati refused to make any comments on the issue.