India is the land of the weird and the wacky. From blaming rapes on the consumption of ‘chowmein’ to holding the record for the longest garland made of cattle dung, Indians can accomplish anything, literally! Ironically though, things are no different when it comes to Indian ministers who often come up with questionable statements that defy logic.
Take the example of Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Satyapal Singh who believes that ‘mantras coded the laws of motion much before they were discovered by English mathematician, astronomer, and physicist Sir Issac Newton’.
According to a report by Hindustan Times, the former Mumbai police commissioner was speaking at a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) on January 15 and 16 when he rewrote science. Here’s what he said:
“There are mantras which codified laws of motion much before it was discovered by the Newton. Hence it is essential that traditional knowledge must be incorporated into our curriculum.”
However, this is not the only incident when an Indian minister said something that makes you scratch your head. So here’s a list of list of bizarre scientific claims made by Indian ministers:
1) Darwin’s theory is ‘scientifically wrong’
Interestingly, the above-mentioned incident was not the first time that Satyapal Singh said something illogical. Speaking to the media in Aurangabad back in January, Singh stated that the ‘theory of evolution’ by naturalist Charles Darwin was ‘scientifically wrong’ (Why Mr Singh, why?). Here’s what he said:
“Darwin’s theory (of the evolution of humans) is scientifically wrong. It needs to change in school and college curriculum. Since the man is seen on Earth he has always been a man.”
2) Plane was invented by Shivakar Babuji Talpade
And the award for the maximum number of ‘illogical statements’ goes to Satyapal Singh. In yet another bizarre statement made back in September last year, Singh said that Indians invented the aeroplane EIGHT YEARS before Wright brothers. We are really amazed by his intelligence! He said,
“Why are students not taught that before the Wright brothers, an Indian called Shivakar Babuji Talpade was the first to invent the airplane. This person invented the plane eight years before the Wright brothers. Are our students taught these things in IITs or not? They should be.”
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3) Cows inhale and exhale oxygen
Mammals (which include humans and animals) inhale oxygen and exhale CO2 — is a fact that we all were taught early on in our school days. But it seems that Rajasthan Education Minister Vasudev Devnani wasn’t paying attention while the lesson was being taught.
To highlight the importance of ‘holy cow’, the minister in January last year made a bizarre statement that may want you to cry on the shoulders of your biology teacher. He said that cow is the only animal that can ‘exhale oxygen’ (clearly he flunked in his biology class!). Check out his statement here:
“Gai ekmatra prani hai jo oxygen grahan karta hai, aur oxygen hi chodta hai (cow is the only animal that takes in oxygen and also releases oxygen).”
4) Pythagoras theorem originated in India
When we were in school, we were taught that an ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras pioneered the famous ‘Pythagorous theorem’, which establishes the relationship between the length, base and the hypotenuse of a triangle.
However, Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan doesn’t agree with this as he believes that the theorem originated in India and that Indian scientists allowed scientists from other countries to take the credit (wow!). Here’s what he told the media in a statement back in January 2015:
“Our scientists discovered the Pythagoras theorem, but we … gave credit to the Greeks. We all know that we knew ‘beejganit’ much before the Arabs, but very selflessly we allowed it to be called Algebra. This is the base the Indian scientific community has maintained.”
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5) Ganesha had plastic surgery
This one came from our beloved Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking at a function in Mumbai back in October 2014, PM Modi said that genetic science existed during Mahabharata and that Lord Ganesha had plastic surgery (we are proud of you sir!)
We worship Lord Ganesha so obviously there must have been a plastic surgeon at that time who got an elephant’s head on the body of a human being and began the practice of plastic surgery.
