Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan claimed on Wednesday that ancient Indian technology was advanced enough for the country to have the “Pushpak Vimaan” long before the Wright brothers built the first aeroplane.

The Pushpak Vimaan is a mythical aerial vehicle described in the Hindu epic Ramayana.

Chouhan, at the convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Bhopal, said that India had “lit the lamp of knowledge” when the world was enveloped in the darkness of ignorance.

“Our science and technology were highly advanced,” said the Bharatiya Janata Party leader. “When there was not even a trace of the Wright Brothers, the Pushpak Vimaan existed.”

Chouhan also referred to the mythical weapons Agniastra, Varunastra and Brahmastra described in the epic Mahabharata.

“Those weapons were such that they would return to the quiver after hitting the target,” said the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister. “Today, missiles are being launched and drones are being sent. But our country already achieved such things long ago.”

Chouhan added that it was only when the country “fell into the abyss of slavery” that scientific and technological progress was halted.

Chouhan made the comments two days after another BJP leader, Anurag Singh Thakur, told school students that Hindu deity Hanuman was the first one to “travel to space”.

Yuri Gagarin of the erstwhile Soviet Union was the first person who travel on a crewed spaceflight in 1961.

Thakur’s remarks had sparked criticism from Opposition leaders. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Kanimozhi had described Thakur’s claims as “deeply troubling” and said that science should not be confused with mythology.

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring had quipped in a sarcastic vein that he was thankful that Thakur did not say Prime Minister Narendra Modi also went to space with Hanuman.

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