tech2 News Staff

Union minister Satyapal Singh on Saturday stood by his claim that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution of man was scientifically wrong and said that as a science student, he believes that his "ancestors were not apes".

The junior minister in the HRD Ministry denounced those who attacked him over his comments and said "it's not scientific temper to condemn the point of view of another person".

"I am a science student and I have completed my PhD in Chemistry. Who all were the ones speaking against me? And, how many people stood by me? We should be compelled to think. We get scared of the press. If not today, tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then in 10-20 years, people will accept what I said. At least I believe that my ancestors were not apes," he said at a book launch.

Singh had said a few months ago that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was wrong and the changes need to reflect in the school and college curriculum, drawing flak from various quarters.

The former Mumbai police commissioner said he was "proud to be an educated politician" and it was the "good fortune" of the country that a "nationalist government with a nationalist mindset" is at helm. He said 99 percent of the universities abroad "misinterpret, mistranslate" Hinduism.

Weeks after his statement on Darwin, Singh even said mantras in the scriptures defined the laws of motion long before Issac Newton discovered them. "There are mantras which codified ‘laws of motion’ much before it was discovered by the Newton. Hence it is essential that traditional knowledge must be incorporated in our curriculum," he said.

Responding to such statements, French Nobel laureate Serge Haroche told Firstpost in an earlier interview, "I think it is terrible that you have a confusion between science and religion, the fact that the scientific method is not accepted even when it is based on proof and subjected to be falsified all the time. Whereas religious beliefs are based on faith and scriptures, and are not subjected to any discussion."

With inputs from the Press Trust of India