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Una
The comments made by Anurag Thakur, MP from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has started a row with his comments about Lord Hanuman. Thakur had stated that Lord Hanuman was the first person ever to go to space, this statement was not well received by the opposition. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam DMK criticised Thakur for confusing fact with fable.
The whole thing started when Thakur was interacting with some students of Shri Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Una, Himachal Pradesh, on the National Space Day, on 23rd August. Thakur asked students, “Who was the first person to travel to space” The students replied, “Neil Armstrong”. That’s when Thakur disagreed and said, “I think Hanuman ji was the first person to travel to space.”
These comments didn’t sit well with the opposition as they criticised Thakur for his remarks. DMK party member and MP Kanimozhi took to his social media and stated that it was concerning that a former Union Minister is feeding school children with such information. He highlighted that science is not mythology and the minister shouldn’t confuse students with fable.
“A member of parliament and former union minister asking school children who first set foot on the moon, and insisting that it was not Neil Armstrong but Hanuman, is deeply troubling. Science is not mythology. To mislead young minds in classrooms is an insult to knowledge, reason, and the spirit of scientific temper enshrined in our Constitution. India’s future lies in nurturing curiosity, not confusing fact with fable,” he wrote.
Thakur, at the event, insisted that students should not limit their knowledge and learnings to whatever they are taught from “textbooks given to us by the Britishers”. He emphasized that teachers should also teach students using “our veds, our textbooks and our knowledge.” He believes that if they study through that as well they will learn a lot.
