Scientists across the country are reportedly protesting on Tuesday, January 8 against claims such as discrediting the works of Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking, made at the Indian Science Congress 2019. The conference was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
One speaker at the conference, Kannan Jegathala Krishnan had said that Einstein had made a ‘big blunder’ and that Newton was wrong about gravity. Krishnan had also ridiculed Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, adding that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) union minister Harsh Vardhan was a more “popular and learned” scientist.
Krishnan had even said that he would name gravitational waves ‘Narendra Modi waves’.
Soumitro Banerjee, a physics professor and general secretary of non-profit Breakthrough Science Society (BSS) told Reuters, “This is very harmful for the growth of scientific temper because these ideas are being propagated through the Science Congress which gives it a respectability,”
Andhra University Vice Chancellor G Nageshwar Rao had claimed that Kauravas were born due to stem cell and test tube technologies and that India possessed this knowledge thousands of years ago.
“It is absolutely distressing that these claims were made in the Children Science Congress section of Indian Science Congress (ISC) where the audience was largely comprised of teachers and young students,” BSS had said in a statement issued after Rao’s address.
Also Read: Science Body Slams Andhra University Vice-Chancellor’s ‘Kauravas Were Test Tube Babies’ Claim