Teach IIT Students About 'Pushpak Viman', Tell Them About Indian Who Invented Plane: MoS HRD Minister Satyapal Singh

Minister of State for HRD Satyapal Singh on Tuesday asked engineering colleges to teach students about "ancient technology" of the country and tell them that it was an Indian who had invented airplanes eight years before the Wright brothers did. 

“Why are students not taught that before the Wright brothers, an Indian called Shivakar Babuji Talpade was the first to invent the airplane. This person invented the plane eight years before the Wright brothers. Are our students taught these things in IITs or not? They should be," the Hindustan Times quoted him as saying. 

Speaking at an award ceremony for the first AICTE-ECI Chhatra Vishwakarma Award, the former Mumbai Police commissioner said he wants IIT students to learn about Vishwakarma, a Hindu deity and "Pushpak Viman", a mythical flying chariot mentioned in the Ramayana, the HT report said. 

Singh, an IPS officer of the 1980 batch, was the police commissioner Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur and additional DGP, law & order and establishment, Maharashtra state before he took voluntary retirement to join politics.

Earlier too, senior leaders and politicians attempted to include Hindu myths in Indian education. 

In August, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani had compared the arrows of Lord Ram to ISRO missiles.

While addressing a gathering of engineering students of the Institute of Infrastructure Technology Research and Management in Ahmedabad, the Gujarat BJP chief  said 'the work that ISRO does, Lord Ram used to do too.'

Misra, a director at ISRO reportedly seconded Rupani, hailing Ram’s engineering skills which enabled the construction of the Ram Setu to Sri Lanka, mentioning that even squirrels joined in the pursuit.