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Tharoor bats for Vardhan, ancient Indian science

After praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year for ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday once again tripped the party line supporting Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan’s remarks that Algebra and Pythagoras’ theorem originated in India, but others took credit for it. Tharoor said “genuine accomplishments” of ancient Indian science should not be debunked due to “exaggerations of the Hindutva brigade.”

In a series of tweets, Tharoor said “modernists sneering at” Vardhan “should know he was right” and added that “to mock the credulous exaggerations of the Hindutva brigade, you don’t need to debunk the genuine accomplishments of ancient Indian science.” He went on to quote articles he had written in the past on the issue. “Modernists sneering at @drharshvardhan should know he was right, as I pointed out in 2003,” tweeted Tharoor, who was last year removed as Congress spokesperson for praising Modi’s for ‘Swachh Bharat’ initiative. 

“Ganesha plastic surgery theory is absurd, except as a metaphor. But Susruta was world’s 1st surgeon,” added Tharoor.

At the inaugural event of the Indian Science Congress on Saturday, Vardhan had said ancient Indian scientists have graciously allowed scientists from other countries to take credit for their findings. “Our scientists discovered the Pythagoras theorem, but we gave its credit to the Greeks. We all know that we knew ‘beejganit’ much before the Arabs, but very selflessly we allowed it to be called Algebra. This is the base the Indian scientific community has maintained,” said Vardhan.

The union minister said Indians have never used their knowledge of science for negative purposes. “Whether it is related to the solar system, medicine, chemistry or earth science, we have shared all our knowledge very selflessly,” he said.
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