Govt shouldn't wait for an apple to fall on its head: CPI(M) on Piyush Goyal's gravity comment

New Delhi: Taking a dig at Union minister Piyush Goyal's comment that maths did not help Albert Einstein discover gravity while speaking on the government's target of USD 5 trillion economy, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said instead of focusing on distant dreams, the minister should focus on reality.

The Commerce and Industry was trolled over the gaffe in explaining that achieving the target of nearly doubling the size of the economy to USD 5 trillion should not be looked through the prism of maths.

In a tweet, Yechury said, "The govt shouldn't wait for an apple to fall on its head before it realises that the Math about the economy is all bad. It doesn't even need an Einstein (due apologies to Newton) to tell us that. Instead of focusing on distant dreams, minister would do well to focus on reality."

At a meeting of the Board of Trade, Goyal said, "Do not get into the calculations that you see on television...Oh if you are looking at USD 5 trillion economy, the country will have to grow at 12 per cent, today it is growing at 6-7 per cent."

"Do not get into those maths. Those maths have never helped Einstein discover gravity. If he had only gone by structured formulae and what was past knowledge, I do not think there would have been any innovation in this world," he said while wrongly attributing the discover of gravity to renowned scientist Einstein.

The slip up was not lost on the netizens who quickly took to Twitter to point out that gravity was discovered by Isaac Newton and Einstein is credited for his theory of relativity. Some even made fun of the minister's statement.