Along the lines of a viral comment by his BJP colleague Anurag Thakur, who told school students that Lord Hanuman could be considered the first space traveller, Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that India had “Pushpak Vimaan” long before the Wright brothers invented the aeroplane.
Addressing the convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) at Bhopal on Monday, Chouhan hailed India’s epics and history. “When the world was in darkness, India gave light. Our science and technology were highly advanced. The country had Pushpak Vimaan (planes mentioned in Hindu epics),” news agency ANI reported, as he spoke in Hindi.
“We had the Pushpak Viman long before the Wright brothers’ existence was known,” Chouhan said, referring apparently to the American inventors Wilbur and Orville Wright widely hailed as pioneers of air travel for a successful flight in 1903.
Chouhan said that the drones and missiles that are there today have been with the nation for thousands of years. “We have all read this in the Mahabharat. Our country’s science and technology were already developed thousands of years ago,” Chouhan said.
In his nearly 24-minute long address, the BJP leader mentioned the ‘Pushpak Vimaan’ at 3:56.
The Union agriculture minister’s remarks came also amid a nationalistic surge against recent tariffs imposed on India by US President Donald Trump.
He highlighted the nation’s economic development and asserted that New Delhi will not compromise on its farmers’ interests.
Flashback: Shivraj’s 2023 Pushpak Vimaan comment
During his tenure as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh in 2023, Chouhan had claimed that India has been ahead in science since ancient times.
He argued that the Pushpak Vimaan, mentioned in the holy Hindu text of Ramayana, was invented at least 7,000 years before the Wright Brothers came up with the modern plane, a Live Hindustan report said.
At the time, Chouhan also said that Western countries came into contact with science much later. He requested everyone to dispel the idea that the developed Western countries taught science lessons to India.
Chouhan had also referred to “atomism”, referring to Bhaskaracharya’s theory of astronomy. He said that 2,000 years before John Dalton discovered the atomic theory, “Maharishi Kanada presented his atomic theory.”
Lord Hanuman first space traveler: Anurag Thakur
On Saturday, BJP leader Anurag Thakur told students at an event in Himachal Pradesh that Lord Hanuman could be considered the “first one to travel in space” and asked them to look beyond textbooks to connect with India’s traditions.
He later shared the video of his remarks at PM Shri School in Una, delivered on the occasion of National Space Day, on X and captioned it: “Pawansut Hanuman Ji… the first astronaut.”
Thakur had asked the students, “Who was the first space traveller?” and later replied, “Mujhe toh lagta hai Hanuman ji the (I think it was Lord Hanuman).”
He elaborated: “We still see ourselves in the now. As long as we do not know our thousands of years’ old tradition, knowledge, culture, we will remain the same as the British have shown us.”
He added, “I would like to request the principal and all of you to think out of the textbooks and take a look at our nation, our traditions, our knowledge.”