Vardhan uses Hawking's name to claim Vedas having theories better to Einstein

Imphal: Union Science & Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan has stoked a controversy by claiming that Stephen Hawking had on record stated that Vedas might be having theories superior to Einstein's famous mass-energy conversion formula.

"Hawking on record said that Vedas might have a theory superior to E equals to MC Square (E=MC2) formula," the Union Minister said in his inauguration addresses at the 105th session of the Indian Science Congress on Friday.

In a post-inauguration media interaction, Vardhan stuck to his 'unverified' claims that he made at the inaugural function. When asked to disclose his source of information, the minister said, "You do your own research, and if you fail you come to me in Delhi. I'm telling you, Hawking had said it on record."

When Millennium Post did a Google search, it came to light that the website of Institute of Scientific Research on Vedas (I-SERVE) on its home page has an article with the heading Stephen Hawking's Opinion on the Science in Vedas. A sub-headline of the article reads Vedas might have a theory superior to Einstein's law E=MC*2.

On its website, I-SERVE claims it is a scientific research institute dedicated to dig out the technical details of Vedic sciences from ancient Indian literature.

It is registered as a charitable non-profit trust and recognised as a scientific and industrial research organization by

the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research,

Ministry of Science and Technology.

This is not the first time that unsubstantiated scientific claims have been made by a Union Minister. Earlier, Minister of State for HRD Satyapal Singh had claimed that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is "scientifically wrong" and suggested that it needs to be changed in school and

college curriculum across the country.

The junior HRD Minister had also courted another controversy by saying that 'mantras' had codified laws of motion before Isaac Newton. Singh had also suggested that Vaastu compliance of educational buildings was important for learning.