Prakash Javadekar

New Delhi: Even as a defiant MoS HRD Satyapal Singh continues to defend his controversial statement on the Theory of Evolution being 'scientifically wrong', the Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar finally waded into the row and said that he had asked Singh to refrain from making 'such comments'.

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At an event in Aurangabad last week, the minister of state had claimed that Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution was "scientifically wrong" as "no one had seen apes turning into man". He had also suggested that such theories should not be taught in schools and colleges.

His statement had caused much furore, with members of the scientific community vociferously countering the minister's remarks.

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Dismissing Singh's views on evolution as "illogical" and "untenable", the scientists came out strongly in favour of the Darwinian model of the evolution.

In fact, as the controversy snowballed, an unperturbed Singh even announced that the Centre is planning to hold a "grand conference" to discuss Evolution.

Speaking at IIT-Guwahati, where he was present to review the functioning of centrally-funded educational institutions in the Northeast, Singh stated that the "evolutionists and Darwinists" can come and "decide what is true."

However, HRD minister Javadekar on Tuesday said that the Centre had no plans to organise any such conferences to prove or disprove the theory.

“I have discussed the matter with my MoS and I have asked him to refrain from making such comments. We should not dilute science. This is the advice I have given him," Javadekar told PTI.

"We are not going to fund any event or don’t have any plan for a national seminar to prove Darwin wrong. It is the domain of scientists and we should let them free to continue their efforts for progress of the country," he added.

A few days ago, Indian scientists, working in the country or abroad, also wrote a letter titled "In support of evolution" addressing the minister, in which they said they were "pained" by his claim, which was an "insult to genuine research work".

"When a minister working for Human Resource Development in the country makes such claims, it harms the scientific community's efforts to propagate scientific thoughts and rationality through critical education and modern scientific research," it said.

(With IANS and PTI inputs)