Kolkata: Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, who is known for linking Indian mythology and science, in an interaction with students of Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur on Tuesday claimed that ‘Ram Setu’ was built by Indian engineers during ancient times.

“Do we have any doubts that we had good engineers in ancient times? For example, who built the 'Ram Setu'? Was it built by engineers from US, Britain, and Germany? No… Ram Setu was built by our engineers,” he said.

The statement that was made during the institute's 65th convocation was met with silence even as Pokhriyal attempted to coax a response out of the students. He continued to insist with remarks of “Thik hain? Sahi hain? Aap Chup Kyon Hain? (Am I right? Is it right? Please say something. Why are you silent?)” till the students were obliged to clap.

The minister further claimed Sanskrit was the world’s oldest language and Lord Shiva saved the world by consuming poison and is therefore known as ‘Neel Kantha’.

“In future, if we develop ‘bolnewala’ computers (talking computers), then you have to prove it (through research) that Sanskrit is the most scientific and appropriate language for talking computers,” he said while terming Sanskrit as ‘dev vani’ (voice of god).

He added, “In one of the seminar in Dubai I referred to ‘Shankar Bhagwan’ (Lord Shiva) and how he saved the world by consuming poison and why he is known as ‘Neel Kantha’. People are divided over this. But look at the Himalaya today. He is consuming all the poisonous things which we are releasing and saving the world. Today, Himalaya is working as a ‘Neel Kantha’.”

In another comment on the water crisis he said, “People call us ‘Lakir ka Fakir’ (conservative) because we call River Ganges 'ma' and trees ‘devata’ (god). See today, the world is facing an acute water crisis because we failed to protect our ‘ma’. One must understand that our ancient thought was based on science."