BJP discrediting real achievements of Indian science: Tharoor

Stressing that plastic surgery had indeed been invented in India, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor today hit out at the BJP for "discrediting" the real achievements of ancient Indian science through "preposterous" claims by its leaders.
Speaking at an event organised by the All India Professionals' Congress, he also said Ramayana and Mahabharata should be taught in schools in the cultural context and not as a sacred text.
In a direct reference to junior HRD Minister Satya Pal Singh's comment against Darwinism, Tharoor said it was "absurd" that the BJP leader said "no one saw an ape turn into a man".

"The process of evolution takes millions of years and no one lives long enough to see an ape turn into a man. He (Singh) has not realised," he added.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP also trained his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the latter's "Ganesha's head" comment.
"You can read my article, 'India's War on Science', on the internet. Actually, it is Modi's war on science because he did say that Ganesha's head on a human body showed that we had plastic surgery (in ancient India)," he said.

Asserting that India was indeed the country where plastic surgery was invented, Tharoor said, "By saying these preposterous things, the BJP elements are discrediting the real achievements of Indian science, because you know what, India was the country that had invented plastic surgery.

"India had the first known surgeon in history -- Shushruta. The first known surgical instruments found in archaeology were Indian instruments of the First AD. There is textual evidence of the first plastic surgery operation -- rhinoplasty -- the surgery of nose."
The people of the country should be proud of such real achievements such as the findings of Aryabhata, but there was not enough material on these in the textbooks, he added.
"These are the things we can be proud of. Instead, you talk about the Ganesha's head and the entire credibility of your history passes," the Congress leader said.

Talking about Aryabhata, he said the great mathematician-astronomer had anticipated the findings of Galileo, Kepler and Copernicus in Europe and that Rigveda had a pretty accurate description of gravity.
"But we do not not know enough about these real achievements and it is partly our fault, because all we are talking about is the Pushpak Viman jetting around the world," Tharoor added.
He also said Ramayana and Mahabharata should be taught in schools the way Odyssey and Iliad are taught in the Western world.
"I do believe that we should be teaching the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, but not as sacred texts, but as rich cultural stories, in the syllabus," Tharoor said, adding that these stories should come into a framework of reference, so that people understood the characters of these epics in a socio-cultural context.