Sita is proof that a concept like test babies must have existed during the Ramayana era, Dinesh Sharma said (Reuters photo for representation)

The concept and technology behind in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), the technology behind test-tube babies, must have existed during the time of Ramayana.

This was not a statement made by serial offender Biplab Deb but by his Bharatiya Janata Party colleague Dinesh Sharma who is also one of the deputy chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh.

Sharma said this while speaking at an event in Lucknow. "People say Sita ji was born from an earthen pot, which means at the time of Ramayana, a concept similar to test-tube baby must have existed," news agency ANI quoted Sharma as saying.

Sharma's belief that many of today's technologies and concepts existed during the era of great Indian epics isn't new.

Just this week, Sharma explained in Mathura how journalism began not after Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century but during the time of the Mahabharata.

"It [journalism] started during Mahabharata," news agency PTI quoted Sharma as saying in Mathura. To back his assertion, Sharma spoke about how the mythological character, Sanjaya, sitting at Hastinapur, narrated a bird's eye view of the war of Mahabharata to Dhritarashtra. "Yeh live telecast nahi to aur kya hai [if it is not live telecast, then what is it?]," Sharma asked.

With his recent comments, Sharma joins a list of BJP leaders who have made similar, sometimes controversial statements.

The most recent examples are of Triupura CM Biplab Deb, who explained how the roots of modern-day internet existed during the Mahabharata, and Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani who likened mythological character Narad to Google.

The other BJP leader to be in an eye of a storm over such statements was Union science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan who said that Vedic theories were superior to Einstein's famous equation: e=mc2.

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