Modi govt used Indian Science Congress to promote "RSS-backed agenda": JD(U) chief

New Delhi: The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) on Saturday came down heavily on the government over presentation of some papers at Indian Science Congress in Mysuru, saying it smacked of "RSS-backed agenda", which is very "disgusting, ridiculous and dangerous".

"Indian Science Congress is held every year since the year 1914 but we had never seen such a drama-like situation in the Congress as we saw in Mysuru where its main objective to promote the cause of science was missing."

"The RSS-backed agenda was seen at such a place. It is very disgusting, ridiculous and dangerous for the unity and integrity of this country as talking about one religion at such functions is nothing but to provoke sentiments of other religions," party president Sharad Yadav said in a statement.

He noted that it was for the first time that people heard at the Science Congress about Lord Shiva as an environmentalist while someone presented a paper on the medical effects of blowing of conch (Shankh).

Yadav was referring to the 103rd Indian Science Congress that concluded on Thursday in Mysuru, where a paper presented by the Chairman of Madhya Pradesh Private University Regulatory Commission on Lord Shiva hailed him as the greatest environmentalist in the world.

Calling Shiva as Lord of Mount Kailash, the paper talked about his powers of providing purified water to human beings.

A lecture by an additional commissioner of Kanpur talked about about blowing the conch (shankh) to achieve health and wellness.

Yadav felt that such papers should not have been presented and talked about at the event.

This congregation looked like a "circus" as was rightly said by one of the Nobel laureates, who went to the extent of saying that he would never again attend the Indian Science Congress, the JD-U president said.

He also recalled that at last year`s Congress in Mumbai, a session titled "Ancient Sciences through Sanskrit" had dwelt` on aviation technologies. Noting that the session talked about aircrafts which could travel to planets and that speakers also dwelt on how Indians flew planes before the Wright brothers did, Yadav said it was "ridiculous".

At the last year's Science Congress in Mumbai, a session titled "Ancient sciences through Sanskrit" had dwelt on aviation technologies in Maharishi Bharadwaj`s Vaimanika Shastra, attracting ridicule.

"Sensitive conferences like Indian Science Congress which is held every year goes through a rigorous scrutiny like which are the papers being presented and who are presenting the papers and so many other things are intensely verified. But in the context of Mysuru Congress, any scrutiny did not seem to have taken place and it was held with other motives of the current government."

"I oppose this kind of action and the government should come out with a strong statement so that such things are not repeated in future," the JD-U president said.