Use science to make narrow nationalism irrelevant: Vardhan

Nations having scientific superiority and technological capability should not be selfish, because in selfishness lies the seeds of dispute and human misery, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan today said.
Addressing the welcome address at the Commonwealth Science Conference here, he said science is that adhesive which binds cultures and it should be used for making narrow nationalism irrelevant.
"Science is that adhesive which binds cultures. Very early in our nationalist struggle, the political leaders of 19th century India made it their objective to infuse the scientific temper in society through support for social reform movements," Harsh Vardhan said.
The Union Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences recalled that the First World War made it possible for man to kill man on an industrial scale.

"For most of the 20th century humankind lived under the threat of total annihilation because science and technology had been put to use as a tool of world domination," he said.
"Through the inauguration of the Commonwealth Science Congress, we are indeed ringing in a new age which would see science being utilised for the good of all. Some member nations of the Commonwealth have greater scientific and technological capacities than others.

"These advantages should not be guarded selfishly, because in selfishness lies the seeds of dispute and human misery," Harsh Vardhan stressed
He recalled the conversations between noted scientist Albert Einstein and Mahatma Gandhi.

"They had met four times in the 1930s and in the course of their long and celebrated conversations which have been recorded for posterity, the possibility of science and technology being turned over for unselfish ends figured quite frequently," he said.