Samikhsya Bureau
How were the 100 Kauravas born out of the womb of one mother?
Andhra University vice chancellor G. Nageshwar Rao (in pic) claims the ancient India knew about stem cell research and test tube baby fertilisation, and Kauravas were products of such advanced science.
Speaking at the 106th Indian Science Congress held in Jalandhar on Friday, Rao said: “In this country, stem cell research was present thousands of years back.”
Quoting the Mahabharat, Rao said that the Kauravas were in fact test tube babies because 100 eggs were fertilised and put into 100 earthen pots!
Rao did not stop at that. Quoting the Ramayana, he further claimed that Ram’s “astras” and “shastras” or weapons were technologically so advanced that they returned to him after hitting the target. On the other hand, Ram’s adversary Ravana had 24 different types of aircrafts and airports in his kingdom Lanka.
Rao was not the only one to make mincemeat of science at the Indian Science Congress. Kanan Jegathala Krishnan, supposed to be a research scholar at Tamil Nadu’s World Community Service Centre claimed that Isaaq Newton knew very little about gravitational forces, while Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity was misleading.
According to Krishnan, in the future Union science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan would be a bigger scientist than A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, widely known as India’s ‘missile man’.
Well, such outrageous claims equating mythology with science have ceased to be surprising or shocking any more. The delegates attending the Indian Science Congress are just repeating what the political leaders in power have been saying for the past four years.
In 2014, while addressing a gathering of doctors in Mumbai, Prime Minister Narendra Modi quoted the Mahabharat to say that Karna was a product of genetic science as he was not born out of his mother’s womb. He also went on to say that there might be plastic surgeons in India as they successfully implanted an elephant head on the body of Lord Ganesha.
Probably, the ‘scientists’ and ‘researchers’ may have their own compulsions to be in tune with the ‘scientific temper’ of those leading the country. But is science not the real loser?
