The Union Minister of Science and Technology, Harsh Vardhan has claimed Friday, March 16, that the late physicist Stephen Hawking had once said that the theories of Vedas are superior to Albert Einstein's popular equation e= mc^2.
The former Chief Minister candidate for Delhi in 2013 assembly elections made the claims during an event in Imphal, Manipur, as he said "We recently lost a renowned scientist, cosmologist Stephen Hawking. He also emphatically said on record that our Vedas might have a theory which is superior to the Einstein's theory of e=mc2," PTI reported.
We recently lost a renowned scientist, cosmologist #StephenHawking. He emphatically said on record that our Vedas might have a theory superior to that of Einstein’s E=mc2: Dr.Harsh Vardhan, Union Science and Technology Minister pic.twitter.com/N9ustXvSnu
— ANI (@ANI) March 16, 2018
Vardhan who made this statement on Hawking at the 105th Indian Science Congress in Imphal, however, did not cite a source for his claims. "You find the source. He had on record said that there is a possibility that Vedas have a better formula than the one given by Einstein. You also work a bit on this," Vardhan was quoted by PTI while addressing the media.
He further added that he spoke his mind on Hawking at an 'open forum' and if the reporters fail to find out the source, then he would eventually disclose it later.
As countless tributes poured in for the British cosmologist Hawking after he passed away at the age of 76 in Cambridge, United Kingdom March 14, Vardhan took to Twitter to pay his respects as well.
Saddened by the passing away of #StephenHawking, the greatest scientist of the time, known for his work with black hole & relativity. It is a great loss to the world scientific community. pic.twitter.com/AV5H3ULiTm
— Dr. Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) March 14, 2018
#ISC2018 –Each and every custom and ritual of Hinduism is steeped in science; every modern Indian achievement is a continuation of our ancient scientific achievement. Even Stephen Hawking said, our Vedas might have a theory superior to Einstein’s law E=MC2. @moefcc @IndiaDST pic.twitter.com/QP9PbLElCd
— Dr. Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) March 16, 2018
Dr Harsh Vardhan tagged the Department of Science and Technology (DST) on the tweet as well. Although the official twitter handle of DST often retweets the minister's tweets on science, this time they opted not to do the same.
It is unclear as to which Vedic theory Vardhan was claiming to be superior to Einstein's formula, but the website of a research institute in Hyderabad called the 'Institute of Scientific Research on Vedas' also backed his statement. Albeit, there is no independent verification of the content, there is even a Facebook page dedicated to Hawking that posted about the connection between Vedic theories and Einstein's formulas as well, according to Times of India.
