NEW DELHI: Union science and technology minister Harsh
Vardhan on Friday claimed that the British theoretical physicist and cosmologist
Stephen Hawking, who passed away this week, had said the Vedas - ancient Indian scriptures - might have a theory that is superior to the scientist Albert Einstein’s law (theory of relativity)
E=
mc
2.
He made this claim while addressing inaugural session of the 105
th Indian Science Congress (ISC) in Imphal.
Vardhan later tweeted his claim, saying “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 (
DST) which comes under his charge.
The DST, which invariably
retweets whatever the minister tweets on his ministry or on science related issues, however, prefers not to
retweet
Vardhan’s claim. Even the science ministry which issued a press statement on the minister’s engagement and participation at the 105
th ISC preferred not to mention what
Vardhan told the gathering of scientists on Stephen Hawking’s purported statement on Vedas.
“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 the Einstein's theory of
E=
mc
2,” the minister was quoted as saying by a news agency from Imphal.
Vardhan, who is also a medical doctor, didn’t clarify on it when asked by journalists there about the source of his claim.
“You find the source. He (Hawking) had on record said that there is a possibility that Vedas have a better formula than the one given by Einstein. You also work a bit on this (to find this source),” the minister told reporters.
He also told the media persons that he would disclose the source of his information if they failed to find out themselves. “I have said this in an open forum. I thought he (Hawking) needs to be remembered (on the occasion),” the minister was quoted as saying.
A search on “Stephen Hawking + Vedas” can lead us to a web-page of a registered charitable trust -
Institute of Scientific Research on the Vedas (I-SERVE) - which makes such claim.
A post on the
Trusts’s website by an ‘
Iserve Admin’ says, “Stephen Hawking, The scientist, theoretical
physicist , cosmologist, general relativity and Quantum Theory expert in Cambridge University, UK has referred the
Vedic science books authored by Dr
Sivarambabu (Organising secretary, I-SERVE) and said that Vedas might have a theory superior to Einstein’s law E=MC
2.” The Admin also reproduced that post of November, 2011 and put the ‘link’ on this subject on the website.
Further research on the web-page shows that the post is linked to a fan-page on Stephen Hawking, maintained by one ‘
hari.scientist’ on
Facebook with the handle name “Stephen Hawking” (community page about Stephen Hawking).
The website of I-SERVE claims that the Trust is recognised by the
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), government of India, as a SIRO (Scientific and
Industrial Research Organization).
The DSIR, which comes under the ministry of science and technology, has a mandate to carry out the activities relating to indigenous technology promotion, development, utilisation and transfer.
