PM Narendra Modi keeps off Pathankot at Indian Science Congress

BENGALURU: Even as India's armed forces continued to battle terrorists at Pathankot, Prime Minister Modi attended the Indian Science Congress, laid the foundation stone for HAL's helicopter complex and inaugurated an international conference on yoga in Mysuru, Tumakuru and Bengaluru respectively, inviting criticism on the so cial media.

In a departure from his earlier addresses at science conferences, Modi made no references to ancient Indian science pioneering innovations like genetic engineering. At the yoga conference he said empirical science did not know everything. "Indian systems of medicine have to be measured and evaluated and proved to be worthy," he added. Modi's tweets on the yoga meet and his emphasis on calling it a global heritage invited the wrath of the Twitterati, who felt that the timing was wrong as the Pathankot encounter was still on. Modi made no reference to the encounter in any of his speeches. The yoga conference also saw Karnataka's chief minister Siddaramaiah, from the Congress, hailing the benefits of yoga. He said: "No yoga, no life."