Was Ram Sethu built by Americans, British or Germans, asks Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Tuesday said Ram Sethu was built by Indian engineers and Sanskrit was the oldest language in the world. The Minister urged engineers to conduct research on Ram Sethu and Sanskrit.

“Will anyone have two opinions, how advanced this country was in the field of technology. What was the quality of engineers in the country? If we talk about Ram Sethu, was it built by engineers from America, Britain or Germany? Ram Sethu was built by our engineers, which has surprised the world,” Mr. Pokriyal said.

The HRD Minister, who was delivering address at the 65th annual convocation of IIT Kharagpur, urged the audience to say whether his remarks on Ram Sethu were correct or not. After the address, the Minister was asked about his remarks during a press conference. “What I meant there was call for new research on Ram Sethu,” he said.

Sethusamudram project

In 2007, there was a huge controversy over the existence of Ram Setu during the Sethusamudram Project in Tamil Nadu. The Archaeological Survey of India had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court rejecting the existence of the Ram Sethu bridge. The affidavit was, however, withdrawn the same year.

During his address at the convocation, the HRD Minister said Sanskrit was the oldest language in the world and called upon the graduating students to prove that.

“Sanskrit is the first language in the world. So far people have not been able to prove that there was any language before Sanskrit. When we say this people make comments. You will have to prove this as you have taken your oath in Sanskrit,” Mr. Pokriyal said, describing the language as “Dev-vaani” (word of God).

Scientific language

“The first book is Vedas, before Vedas what is the book, the world will have to tell you. So this also you will have to prove,” the HRD Minister said. Mr. Pokriyal said that “in future if a talking computer” was made it would be in Sanskrit only as it was the “most scientific language in the world.”

The Minister said Sanskrit was not for India alone but for the entire world. “America is running a centre on Sanskrit from 1986, Germany is doing research on Veads. So the knowledge which has started from our land, why are we not doing research on it. When the rest of the world will point out, then only we will take notice,” Mr. Pokriyal said.