‘Science meet ruined by RSS agenda’

Coming down heavily on the government over presentation of some papers at the Indian Science Congress, the JD(U) on Saturday said it smacked of “RSS-backed agenda”, which is very “disgusting, ridiculous and dangerous”.

In a statement, JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav said, “We had never seen such a drama-like situation in the congress... the main objective to promote the cause of science was missing.”

“The RSS-backed agenda was seen... It is very disgusting, ridiculous and dangerous for the unity and integrity of this country and may provoke sentiments of other religions,” Mr Yadav said.

He also noted that it was for the first time in a science congress people were told that Lord Shiva was an environmentalist while someone presented a paper on the medical effects of blowing of conch (shankh).

The 103rd Indian Science Congress concluded on Thursday in Mysuru, where a private university chairman hailed Lord Shiva as the greatest environmentalist in the world. Calling Shiva as Lord of Mount Kailash, the paper talked about his powers of providing purified water to human beings.

A lecture by an additional commissioner of Kanpur talked about about blowing the conch (shankh) to achieve health and wellness. Mr Yadav felt that such papers should not have been presented and talked about at the event.

The JD(U) president said that the congregation looked like a “circus” as was rightly said by one of the Nobel laureates, who went to the extent of saying that he would never again attend the Indian Science Congress.

He also recalled that at last year’s Congress in Mumbai, a session titled “Ancient Sciences through Sanskrit” had dwelt on aviation technologies.

Noting that the session talked about aircrafts which could travel to planets and that speakers also dwelt on how Indians flew planes before the Wright brothers did, Mr Yadav said it was “ridiculous”.

At the last year’s Science Congress in Mumbai, a session titled “Ancient sciences through Sanskrit” had dwelt on aviation technologies in Maharishi Bharadwaj’s Vaimanika Shastra, attracting ridicule.

“Sensitive conferences like Indian Science Congress which is held every year goes through a rigorous scrutiny like which are the papers being presented and who are presenting the papers and so many other things are intensely verified. But in the context of Mysuru Congress, any scrutiny did not seem to have taken place and it was held with other motives of the current government...I oppose this kind of action and the government should come out with a strong statement so that such things are not repeated in future,” Mr Yadav said.