Astrologer -Unpublished

We wrote this article on Chandrasiri Bandaranaiyaka, the astrologer who predicted against the government. It was to go Sunday (duh!) but then on Saturday night the lucky bloke was aquitted. Can you beleive it?


“An astrologer getting arrested was indeed an insult to us”, stated Astrologer, Nandinimal Hettithanthri. He said that the problem was that Chandrasiri Bandara hadn’t predicted according to the planets. Whatever he foresaw, he turned the statement around when stating it. He also believes that, if Bandara has predicted it wrong, he should be given the due punishment by the government.

Chandrasiri Bandara was arrested under the Prevention of terrorism Act, for predicting that the Opposition Leader will come in to power on September, 9. He was arrested since such predictions are considered as threat to the President.

Several astrologers in the country gave their conflicting views on the situation. Astrologer, Piyasena Rathuvitharana is of the opinion that all astrologers should be fair in what they predict. “They should not use what they predict for political purposes, however it has been predicted that there will be some political events in the future, such as elections’, he further said.

Media spokesman for the Police, Ranjith Gunasekara said that there have been no more reports regarding this case and that the astrologer is yet being questioned.

Astrologer Jayalath Kumar who predicted that the war would be over before the September, 10 also commented saying that, astrologers should be careful when predicting a persons future because it affects them mentally.

They further added that, we don’t control the planets. The planets control us; therefore Chandrasiri couldn’t have been politically biased in his predicting. They also said that, predicting is a part of freedom of speech, but astrologers have to be careful of about their statements especially when predicting about people. Unlike when predicting natural disasters like floods, landslides and earthquakes, predicting on people can be controversial.

On another note, an astrologer made strong predictions about President Mahinda Rajapakse. They said his horoscope shows that he is very powerful and that he would be a world renouned leader, one that cannot be easily brought down. It is further predicted that anyone competing against him at an election would have no chance of winning, with the public at his side and with the end of war.

There has not been any astrologer arrested in the history of Sri Lanka since the times of the kings. However the arrest of Astrologer Chandrasiri Bandara can now be added to it.

By Melanie Bamunusinghe and Nabeela Hussain