'Einstein didn't use maths to discover gravity': Union Minister Piyush Goyal

After Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman blamed millennials for the stagnation in the auto sector, Union Railways and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal came up with an embarrassing gaffe while defending the economic slowdown.

While addressing a Board of Trade meeting in the national capital, Goyal said, "Maths didn't help Einstein discover gravity". "Don't get into that calculation that you see on television, if you're looking at a five trillion economy then the country will have to grow country at 12 per cent. Today it is growing at 6 or 7 per cent, don't get into those maths, those maths have never helped Einstein to discover gravity. If he would have gone only by structured formulae and what was past knowledge, I don't think there would have been any innovation in the world," Goyal said.

Watch the video here:

The Union minister was addressing a question on how India is supposed to become a $5-trillion economy at the current rate. India's gross domestic product slumped to an over 6-year-low of 5 per cent in the previous quarter, i.e. April-June 2019. This data seems to confirm the growing fear of a slowdown.

Goyal's remark triggered a whirlpool of reactions on Twitter. Check here:

Earlier, Nirmala Sitharaman was criticised after she said that the decline in auto sales was because of the mindsets of millennials. "The automobile and components industry has been affected by BS6 and the mindsets of millennial, who now prefer to have Ola and Uber rather than committing to buying an automobile," Sitharaman said.