We recently lost a renowned scientist, cosmologist #StephenHawking. He emphatically said on record that our Vedas m… https://t.co/GPdJ9LzHxb — ANI (@ANI) 1521204426000

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(With PTI inputs)

NEW DELHI: Union science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday claimed that cosmologist Stephen Hawking , who passed away this week, once said the Vedas have a theory that is superior to Albert Einstein 's groundbreaking equation, E=mcVardhan made the remark while addressing the inaugural session of the 105th Indian Science Congress, but later dodged queries on the source of the information."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 that of Einstein's theory of E=mc," Vardhan said in his speech.When asked to disclose the source to back his claim, Vardhan retorted, "You find the source. He went on record and 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 (to find this source)."However, there is no documented evidence that Hawking made any such statement.A Google search on Stephen Hawking and Vedas throws up many links, one of which leads to a website hosted by the Institute of Scientific Research on Vedas, which makes the claim that Hawking "referred the Vedic science books authored by Dr Sivarambabu and said that the Vedas might have a theory superior to Einstein’s law E=mc."Some deeper digging reveals that the reference to "Stephen Hawking" links to a 2011 post on a Facebook fan page maintained by one "hari.scientist".This isn't the first time that politicians, mostly of the Hindu nationalist ilk, have claimed that many discoveries of modern science and technology were known to the people of ancient India. Perhaps the most famous instance is when Prime Minister Narendra Modi said cosmetic surgery was practised by Indians thousands of years ago, and cited the example of the elephant-headed god Ganesha.Einstein's theory of relativity is a critical contribution to modern physics.Several claims made in past editions of the Indian Science Congress have come under criticism by the scientific community for not being backed by empirical evidence.For instance, a lecture in the 102nd Indian Science Congress held in Mumbai examined ancient aviation technology in the Vedas and claimed that aeroplanes existed in India 7,000 years ago and they travelled from one country to another and from one planet to another.