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The diary of the Vadodara-based university for 2017 has a list of sages who, it claims, pioneered various path-breaking scientific developments, including those in medicine like cosmetic surgery.
The Congress, meanwhile, has criticised the content of the diary, alleging the RSS’s right-wing thinking was behind it. On pages of each month, from January to December, the diary hails the contribution of different saints.
For instance, sage Sushrut is glorified as the “father of cosmetic surgery” and Acharya Kanad for developing the nuclear technology.
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It credits Maharshi Bhardwaj with developing rockets and airplanes while Bhaskaracharya as the inventor of earth science besides being a mathematician and astronomer.
In the long list, Swami Bharti Krishna Tirtha has been mentioned as a vedic mathematician, and Charak Rushi, revered as founder of Ayurveda, as the father of medicine.
Apart from eulogising the ancient sages, the diary has also references to modern Indian scientists and scholars like Jagdish Chandra Bose, Vikram Sarabhai, C V Raman and Srinivas Ramanujan on its pages.
The sages were apparently glorified in the pages of the diary on the recommendation of MSU syndicate member Jagdish Soni, son of founder leader of the Jan Sangh in Gujarat Babubhai Soni.
Soni, nominated to the the university syndicate by BJP government in the state, justified the contents of the diary, saying an unnecessary controversy was being created out.
“Unnecessary controversy is being raised as there is evidence that these saints carried out research on subjects listed against their names many many years ago. Like modern scientists, they were conducting research in a scientific manner on these subjects,” Soni said, when asked about eye brows being raised about it by certain quarters.
“The contribution of these sages in various fields was for the welfare of human beings and development of Indian culture, and the country should be proud of them. Their inclusion in the MSU diary is to pay tribute and respect to them,” he said.
Dismissing the allegation that ideological interests were behind it, Soni said the university had in the past honoured several Indian scientists including former President late A P J Abdul Kalam.
Professor Ajay Ashtaputre, Dean of Faculty of Performing Arts and who heads the diary committee, said the names were recommended for inclusion by Soni as syndicate member. Soni said, “My proposal suggesting inclusion of names of these sages in the diary was accepted by the committee.”
The Congress, however, alleged that RSS thinking was behind the such a project.“Our ancient saints were great. But there is a limit to glorify them. To say that they invented nuclear technology or airplanes and rocket science is too much. Young generation will make fun of that,” University syndicate member Narendra Ravat, who is from the Congress, said. “The RSS wants to make us believe that our ancient saints had done everything. They want to remain in the past and not go to future,” Ravat added.