‘No science without sanskar’ — Rajnath slams Oppn’s ‘pseudoscience’ jibe in Chandrayaan-3 discussion

New Delhi: Chandrayaan-3 and space continued to be part of the Lok Sabha discussions Friday, this time in the context of tradition. Science and India’s ancient traditional knowledge go hand in hand, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told the House, adding that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government takes the defence of India’s culture and heritage as seriously as national security.

Singh was speaking during a discussion on ‘Success of Chandrayaan-3 Mission & other Achievements of our Nation in the Space Sector’. 

Expanding on his argument, he said that when German philosopher Friedrich Nietsche announced ‘God is Dead’, he freed Germans from all notions of mortality (naitikta) and led to the eventual rise of Nazism in Germany. 

“The weapons that were used during the Holocaust in Germany to destroy its people, all were a result of scientific advances — but the lack of ethics and empathy led to the misuse of these advances,” he said. In the same vein, he said that the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were scientific achievements, but “dharmic shakti” was lacking. 

“If people had been religious, a lot of lives would have been saved,” he said. “That is why, no matter how far our scientific achievements go, they will be incomplete without our sanskriti and sanskar.” 

Singh also said that scientific temperament among Indians was a culture inherited from ancient times, and that opposing Sanskrit and ancient knowledge had lately become a symbol of progressiveness. 

“People are asking what is the relation between ancient Indian culture and science,” he asked.

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‘Chandrayaan 3’s success a result of our past culture of science’ 

In his speech, Singh also alluded to the Opposition’s comments made in the Rajya Sabha Wednesday about the need to stop making pseudoscientific comments. 

Trinamool Congress MP Jawhar Sircar had said Wednesday that statements such as “Ganesh’s head was reattached with plastic surgery”, or that “stem cell research existed during Mahabharata” should not be made.

On Thursday, Singh said, “If anyone says that our culture and science cannot go hand in hand, (they) do not understand our traditions, nor do they understand our science.”

Indian children, he said, need to hear more Indian names when they study science in order to feel inspired. 

“Chandrayaan 3’s success is a result of our past culture of science that was a part of our ethos, where science and tradition went hand in hand. Because of foreign forces, we were held back for a bit — but now we can once again trumpet our success with Chandrayaan 3,” Rajnath said.

‘Chandrayaan-3’s success doesn’t belong to one individual’ 

Participating in the debate, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor reiterated what several opposition members had already said — that Chandrayaan 3’s success was pan-Indian and cut across the political divide.

“It does not belong to any one person or one party,” Thiruvananthapuram MP Tharoor said. “What disappoints me today is that some in the government seek to make this their moment to bask in glory and polarise the country by speaking as if all space endeavours only began in 2014.”

India, he said, owes its progress in space exploration to its first prime minister Jawarhalal Nehru’s dedication to develop a scientific temperament among people in India. 

“We had a little money and we did everything ourselves. Though Nehru did not use the words atmanirbharta, the concept was there,” he said.

Tharoor also said that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) — India’s federal space agency — needs more funds. 

“The Chandrayaan mission was cheaper than what the government spent on the G20. ISRO’s last 40 years of spending is equivalent to NASA’s six months expenditure. But they should not be punished for it, he said,” adding that this year, the Department of Space’s budget had been slashed by 8 percent — down to 12,554 crore from 13,700 crore the year before. 

The TMC’s Sougata Roy, meanwhile, said he had missed Chandrayaan-3’s soft landing because “in that moment, the PM’s photo came”. 

“We (the country) wanted to see the soft landing, instead we saw his photo,” he said, adding that Chandrayaan was not the result of one individual’s effort “but a result of the hard work of hundreds of people”. 

“Like Rajnath Singh, I’m also a former professor of physics. But unlike Rajnath Singh, when I talk about Chandrayaan, I do not speak of Ram mandir (Ram temple in Ayodhya). When someone says that Ganesha’s head was placed with plastic surgery, that Kauravas were born through IVF and pushpak viman was an airplane, I do not accept it,” he said, India’s goal, he said, should be to develop the nation, “getting rid of superstitions among these people (pointing to BJP leaders), and advance science and technology”. 

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)

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