Academics at the annual Indian Science Congress, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, dismissed the discoveries of Issac Newton and Albert Einstein, BBC reported.

They said ancient Hindus had invented stem cell research.

But academics said remarks at this year’s ongoing summit were even more astounding than usual.

The head of a southern Indian university cited an old Hindu text as proof that stem cell research was discovered in India thousands of years ago.

G Nageshwar Rao, vice chancellor of Andhra University, also said a demon king from the Hindu religious epic, Ramayana, had 24 types of aircraft and a network of landing strips in modern-day Sri Lanka.

Another scientist from an university in the southern state of Tamil Nadu who was speaking at the conference said that Issac Newton and Albert Einstein were both wrong and that gravitational waves should be renamed as “Narendra Modi Waves”.

Dr KJ Krishnan reportedly said Newton failed to “understand gravitational repulsive forces” and Einstein’s theories were “misleading”.

Critics said ancient texts are still to be read and enjoyed – but it was nonsense to suggest they were science.

The Indian Scientific Congress Association expressed “serious concern” at the remarks.