Spread of state sponsored unscience in India

The corrupt spread of state sponsored unscience in India

01-June-2023 9:18pm IST, New Delhi

Text of address by Swadeshi Jagran Manch to the concerned faculty of Saraswati foundation schools over Zoom

Good evening

I am Professor J.P. Sinha, Co-Convenor of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch. I am here today to speak against the Indian government's decision to remove the periodic table from our country's Class 10 science textbooks, which has caused teachers like yourself to be agitated by this assault on our collective knowledge.

This decision is a clear attempt to dumb down India's children and deprive them of a proper scientific education. The periodic table is one of the most important discoveries in chemistry, and its removal will make it much more difficult for our youth to develop a scientific temper, which is a Fundamental Principle and Obligation of our Constitution.

The government spokesman has claimed that the decision was made in order to reduce the syllabus load on students. However, this is patently false. The periodic table is a relatively small part of the chemistry syllabus, and its removal will not make a significant difference to the workload.

In fact, the government's real reason for removing the periodic table is to promote its own unscientific and superstitious ideology. The present government of India is led by a Prime Minister who is surrounded by a gaggle of uneducated, unwashed Hindu mendicants who fuel his belief in astrology and other pseudo-scientific nonsense. This decision by the Prime Minister is just another example of his government's attempt to impose its own irrational beliefs on the rest of the country.

In addition to the removal of the periodic table, the government has also recently made other changes to the science curriculum that are harmful to students' education. For example, the government has removed Darwin's theory of evolution from the syllabus. Darwin's theory is one of the most important and well-supported theories in science, and its removal from the curriculum is a major setback for science education in India.

The government's decision to remove the periodic table and Darwin's theory from the science curriculum is part of a larger pattern of government interference in education. The government has also imposed a number of other changes to the education system, such as the introduction of a new national curriculum and the creation of a new national testing system. These changes have been met with widespread criticism from educators and parents.

The government's interference in education is a serious threat to the quality of education in India. India is a secular nation, and the government should focus on providing quality education to all students, instead of trying to impose its own ideological agenda on the education system.

Lack of scientific education is a serious threat to the integrity of our nation in the modern world. Imposing nonsensical theories derived from WhatsApp University has serious political and military consequences. For instance, it is well-reported in the national media that Prime Minister Modi's utterly bizarre decision during the Balakot retaliatory surgical strike to send in Indian Air Force French Mirage jets during heavy rains resulted in a bungled operation. The Mirage jets were unable to use their Crystal Maze missiles due to the heavy rain, and as a result, the operation was largely ineffective and no video confirmation of the strike was available. The Prime Minister's decision to send in the Mirage jets during heavy rains was a reckless and irresponsible act. It put the lives of our pilots at risk and it wasted valuable resources. In any civilized country, the Prime Minister would be held accountable for his actions.

This is just one example of the Prime Minister's incompetence and his lack of understanding of military matters. India's Prime Ministers should not be making decisions about military operations; they should leave that to the experts.

Another such decision is the bizarre decision to exclude India's then-Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, a highly qualified engineer from the prestigious IIT, from technical negotiations for the Rafale jet purchases with Dassault. The negotiations, which were directly done in secret between Modi and Dassault, resulted in only 36 jets being delivered to India at the same price which the previous government, headed by a highly qualified economist, had negotiated for 127 Rafale jets. The middleman involved in the amended deal from the Indian side is a well-known crony of the Prime Minister and a self-declared bankrupt.

However, the utlimate example of Narendra Modi's reliance on semi-literate dodgy Indian gurus is the case of this Baba Ramdev who has profited handsomely from the spread of scienftic illiteracy in India over Whatsapp University under the Modi regime.

We all know that Baba Ramdev, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been making a series of unscientific and harmful claims in recent years to promote his own business interests to the extent that many people beieve that Modi gets a commission on Patanjali sales. For instance, Ramdev called allopathy a "stupid science" and claimed that allopathic medicines have failed to cure any diseases. He also promoted his untested Coronil, as a immunity booster kit, without scientific evidence. His bizarre claims had been widely criticized by the medical community with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) calling for Ramdev to be prosecuted for his statements, and accusing him of arson on the sovereignty of the country. The IMA has also demanded that the Union health minister (another semi-literate Modi plant with fake degrees) to either accept the challenge and their accusations or prosecute Ramdev under the Epidemic Act.

Ramdev's remarks were not only unscientific, but also harmful. His misleading claims about the ineffectiveness of allopathic medicine would criminally induce people to delay or forgo life-saving treatment. His promotion of his own Coronil without scientific evidence would also lead people to use an ineffective and potentially harmful product. Such statements are a dangerous example of the spread of misinformation and pseudoscience by the present government. They are a threat to public health and to the credibility of India's traditional Ayurvedic and Unani medicine sysyems. It is important for all scientists to call out such statements and to hold those who make them accountable, considering that

Ramdev has a history of making false and misleading claims that his Patanjali products can cure cancer, HIV/AIDS, and other serious diseases. His close ties to the Modi government lead to accusations of using his influence with Modi to promote Patanjali products at the expense of other legitimate businesses. All the while Modi does nothing to discourage Ramdev and his ilk.

I would like to conclude by pointing out that the government's decision to remove the periodic table from the science curriculum is not just an attack on science education. It is also an attack on our democracy. A democracy cannot function without an informed citizenry. By depriving our children of a proper scientific education and promoting pseudo-science religious mumbo jumbo in place of good science, this utterly shameless government is undermining the very foundation of our democracy.

Jai Hind