NEW DELHI: Science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday controversially claimed that British cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who died this week, had said the Vedas might have a theory superior to Albert Einstein’s equation, E=mc2.
Vardhan made the claim while addressing the inaugural session of the 105th Indian Science Congress in Imphal.
He later tweeted, “Each and every custom and ritual of Hinduism is steeped in science; every modern Indian achievement is a continuation of our ancient scientific achievement”, and tagged it to the department of science and technology.
The DST, which retweets whatever the minister tweets on his ministry or science-related issues, however, did not retweet Vardhan’s comment.
Even the science ministry, which issued a press statement on the minister’s engagement at the 105th ISC, chose not to mention what Vardhan told the gathering of scientists on Hawking’s alleged statement on Vedas.
Web searches show the reference on a Hawking fan page on Facebook and there is no independent verification of the content.
“We recently lost a renowned scientist, cosmologist Stephen Hawking. He emphatically said on record that our Vedas might have a theory which is superior to Einstein’s theory of E=mc2,” the minister was quoted as saying by a news agency from Imphal.
Vardhan, who is a medical doctor, didn’t clarify when asked ..