Sita was born through a technology similar to the modern-day concept of test tube births, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma claimed on Friday. He made the remark while drawing a series of parallels between modern technology and accounts from the Hindu mythology.

According to the Ramayana, Sita’s father King Janaka discovered her covered in earth while ploughing a field.

“Sitaji was born from an earthen pot, which means at that time, there must have been some project related to test tube babies going on,” Dinesh Sharma said, according to News18. “Because of that, Janak used an axe from home and a baby came out of the pot and became Sita. This technology must be something similar to today’s test tube concept.”

Sharma was speaking at an event on skills development.

He also repeated his earlier claim that the concept of live telecast existed during the time of the Mahabharata. The minister had claimed on Wednesday during an event that Sanjay, the mythological character who was the charioteer of King Dhritarashtra, narrated “a bird’s eye view of the war” in Kurukshetra while sitting in Hastinapur.

Sharma also likened the Pushpak Viman – the flying chariot described in the Ramayana – to modern-day aviation technology.

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: Dinesh Sharma, UP Deputy CM pic.twitter.com/kcCH7t75Ex — ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) June 1, 2018

Several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have claimed in the past few years that technology existed in ancient India. In February, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Satyapal Singh said some Indian mantras had spoken of the laws of motion much before Isaac Newton discovered them.

The chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research, Y Sudershan Rao, has also said that Ramayana and Mahabharata were proof that Indians were scientifically advanced.

On April 18, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said the narrator of Mahabharata described the battle of Kurukshtetra to the blind King Dhritarashtra through internet and technology. A few days later, he claimed the government’s achievement of sending “104 satellites a year to space” proved claims in the Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Upanishads that ancient India had a developed scientific tradition.