At Indian Science Congress, no gems from PM Modi, but colleague cannot resist

The last time prime minister Narendra Modi came to Mumbai in October, he had generated controversy with his speech where he linked plastic surgery to mythology by comparing how a plastic surgeon could have been involved in planting an elephant’s head on Lord Ganesha. He also said genetic science existed in the Mahabharata when he spoke of how Karna was born outside the mother’s womb.

On Saturday however, when he spoke at the 102nd Indian science Congress, Modi steered clear of making any such controversial comments. He instead chose to dwell on India’s technological advancements from ancient times; the prime minister didn’t name any specific invention but spoke of how India had expertise in every field. “We in India are the inheritors of a thriving tradition of Indian science and technology since ancient times’ mathematics and medicine, metallurgy and mining, calculus and textiles, architecture and astronomy. The contribution of Indian civilization to human knowledge and advancement has been rich and varied,” said Modi.

But Union minister for health Harsh Vardhan was not that circumspect. He spoke of how Indians have been magnanimous in letting other people taking credit. “We discovered the Pythagoras’ Theorem but we gracefully allowed the Greeks to take the credit,” he said. The minister was referring to what many Hindutva groups have long been saying that it was an Indian mathematician-cum-guru Baudhayana, who belonged to the Yajurveda school, who discovered the geometrical equation thousands of years before Pythagoras discovered it.