Idea of scientific temper under systematic attack from Modi govt: Jairam Ramesh

New Delhi: Asserting that an 'open economy and closed mind model' won't work, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh Friday accused the Modi government of attacking the idea of scientific temper and said this was "very dangerous" for the country's future.

He also claimed that a systematic attack was being carried out on rationality, science and democracy under the current regime.

Speaking at a seminar titled 'Nehru's Legacy Revisited -- Defending Rationality, Science, and Democracy in Contemporary India' at the Jawahar Bhawan here, Ramesh said that in the last 100 years, if there has been one person who has talked and written about scientific temper it is India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

He said that in the Scientific Policy Resolution (SPR) of 1958, Nehru purposely used the word scientific as he believed it was not just about science but about nurturing scientific temper.

"Whenever he used to speak, he used to say that scientific temper is our legacy not a foreign idea. In the modern sense, scientific temper is a swadeshi idea," Ramesh pointed out.

The Congress leader said that it is well-known that Nehru built numerous scientific institutions but more important was his stress on developing a scientific temper.

"Anyone can built laboratories, they are being built now as well, but what happens inside them is what is more important," Ramesh said.

"Today everyone talks of science, the PM also does. But is there scientific thinking, is there a scientific view, these are important questions," he said.

"I believe that democracy is being attacked but there is also an attack on this scientific temper, there is an attempt to tell the current generation through textbooks that roots of modern science are in our ancient history. Whatever we had to know we had learnt earlier. This is very dangerous for our future," the Congress leaders said.

Hitting out at the Modi government, Ramesh said all scientific institutions were being attacked in a "systematic manner".

"Democracy, rationality, scientific temper, science, these are all contributions of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru," he said, adding, "An open economy and a closed mind is a dangerous combination." Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ramesh said when any missile is successfully tested, the PM praises DRDO which was established during Nehru's time.

He also recalled how Nehru came to agree with rights activist Vinoba Bhave that future belongs to science and spirituality.

He urged people that in accordance with the idea of having a scientific temper, they must ask questions as only through this truth can come out.

Historian Aditya Mukherjee, poet and writer Ashok Vajpayee, Jawaharlal Nehru University Professor R Mahalakshmi, CSIR scientist (retd) and poet Gauhar Raza and Associate Professor Delhi University Abha Dev Habib also spoke at the seminar.