JABALPUR, February 14: The ongoing pre-election wizardry seems to have cast an `evil spell' for the time being on the flourishing trade of one prominent magician, while a fellow practitioner tries his `sleight of hand' in the arena of politics.Jadugar Anand's scheduled magic show before his hometown crowd of Jabalpur a few days ago was stripped of its charm when the Jabalpur district administration started pulling down the posters of his shows,on the grounds that they were influencing the election process. The action was taken as another magician, jadugar S K Nigam, is contesting for the Lok Sabha on the ticket of Ajey Bharat Party, founded by international spiritual guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Unaware of the fact that jadugar Anand was to be giving his shows in the town for around two weeks, the district collector issued orders for pulling down all posters with jadugar written on them.
Jadugar Anand said that he tried to convince authorities that his posters did not infringe on the model code ofconduct. He is an unhappy man today, facing the dilemma of how to attract people to his shows.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
