NEW DELHI: Science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday controversially claimed that British cosmologist Stephen Hawking , who died this week, had said the Vedas might have a theory superior to Albert Einstein ’s equation, E=mc2.Vardhan made the claim while addressing the inaugural session of the 105th Indian Science Congress in Imphal.He later tweeted, “Each and every custom and ritual of Hinduism is steeped in science; every modern Indian achievement is a continuation of our ancient scientific achievement”, and tagged it to the department of science and technology.The DST , which retweets whatever the minister tweets on his ministry or science-related issues, however, did not retweet Vardhan’s comment.Even the science ministry, which issued a press statement on the minister’s engagement at the 105th ISC, chose not to mention what Vardhan told the gathering of scientists on Hawking’s alleged statement on Vedas.Web searches show the reference on a Hawking fan page on Facebook and there is no independent verification of the content.“We recently lost a renowned scientist, cosmologist Stephen Hawking. He emphatically said on record that our Vedas might have a theory which is superior to Einstein’s theory of E=mc2,” the minister was quoted as saying by a news agency from Imphal.Vardhan, who is a medical doctor, didn’t clarify when asked by journalists about the source of his claim. “You find the source. He (Hawking) 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,” the minister said.He told the journalists that he will disclose the source of his information if they failed to find out. “I have said this in an open forum. I thought he (Hawking) needs to be remembered (on the occasion),” the minister said.A search on “Stephen Hawking + Vedas” can lead to a webpage of a registered charitable trust — Institute of Scientific Research on the Vedas (I-SERVE) — which makes such a claim. Further research shows the post is linked to a Hawking fan page maintained by one ‘hari.scientist’ on Facebook with the handle name “Stephen Hawking” (community page about Stephen Hawking).The website of I-SERVE claims that the Trust is recognised by the department of scientific and industrial research (DSIR), government of India, as a SIRO (scientific and industrial research organisation). The DSIR, which comes under the ministry of science and technology, has a mandate to carry out activities relating to indigenous technology promotion, development, utilisation and transfer.