September 20, 2023
Jawhar Sircar’s speech during the discussion on “India’s glorious space journey marked by successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3” in the Rajya Sabha
Thank you, Sir. As I can’t see any clock, I hope my time starts now. The first point that I would like to make is across the House. We are Indians first, and as Indians, we take immense pride in the Chandrayaan Mission, we take immense pride in the scientific achievements of India, irrespective of what part of India we come from, what we represent. That is the first basic point that we have to remember. India is a continuum; India is eternal. We cannot slice a part of India and say, ‘this was my part and all the credit happened during this part, all discredit happened during that part.’ We were all part of a continuum. When we talk of Chandrayaan — Mr. Jairam Ramesh has explained it in great detail, the Chair also has explained in great detail — the whole journey of Chandrayaan expands for six decades and more. Numerous individuals have contributed to it. Today is a time when we need to remember them. We need to celebrate the moment, but we also need to remember our history. We also need to celebrate history. So, I will begin with what Mr. Jairam Ramesh said about the great contribution of Pandit Nehru to the whole episode, to the whole journey. As Indians, no one can deny — I am not speaking parochially — the immense contribution of the man who introduced scientific temper in India, the man who introduced all forms of scientific research, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. We have come to a new House and there should be a new approach. Instead of only political leaders, we should celebrate the images, the statuaries of Vikram Sarabhai, of Abdul Kalam, of Homi Bhabha. These are the ones who took us to where we are. We have to admit that it is the great leadership, the great vision, the unending toil of Homi Bhabha, of Satish Dhawan, of Vikram Sarabhai, of Abdul Kalam which took us to where we are today. We also cannot acknowledge or disacknowledge or deny the role played by the Prime Ministers. The present Prime Minister must have surely contributed to this great journey. But that does not mean that earlier Prime Ministers, who laid the path, did not contribute and should be forgotten. As an Indian, my heart leaps when I see our Space Launch Vehicles propel the satellites of other countries and place them in space. We do a big favour to the rest of humanity, who are the nations. But my heart is big. As an Indian, as a person who shares the timelessness of India, we should have a big heart, a big heart that not only takes Space Launch Vehicles but also propels ideas. Today, my heart leaps with joy for another reason, and the reason is that science is finally gaining over superstition. We have to believe in both experimentation, in empiricism and evidence before we open our mouths. Before we open our mouths, we must think of the consequences of what we are saying. How can one say that Ganesha’s head was placed by plastic surgery? We had his chaturthi yesterday. We believe in the greatness of Ganesha, but how can you say that his head was placed by plastic surgery? How can you talk of stem cell science bringing in a particular large section in the Mahabharata? You have to have to have faith in something as well as a strong belief in rationality. Personally, I don’t find any great conflict between faith in something and rationality; others may, but I don’t. As an Indian, I can move along with faith and I can also move along with rationality, but I would not ever like to see the day when faith, superstition and backwardness trample upon the fruits of science. We have the Science Minister who comes and says that we reject Darwin. We have another Minister who comes and says that we reject Einstein. For God sake, if you reject science, you cannot celebrate science just because the timing was such. You cannot reap the benefits of timing and then say. We had a Science and Technology Minister who said that we discovered the theories of Pythagoras before Pythagoras. For God sake, you are the Minister of the great Republic of India! You cannot make these statements. I beseech of you, please restrain them from making irresponsible statements. A Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University talks about stem cell research. A Chief Minister talks of internet and space communication during the age of Mahabharata. Let us, from this moment, take a note that before we make unscientific comments, we will restrain ourselves, we will stick to science so that we have many more Chandrayaans, we have many more Adityas, we have a superior Make in India. Since people were talking about contribution, a very important point that we need to remember is that this contribution of Chandrayaan reveals that it is the smaller technological colleges of India, that are not in the limelight, non-IITs, if I may put it bluntly, that have landed India into such a glorious position. We are feeding on IITs, but many of the products of IITs are going abroad to serve the interests of world capitalism, to serve the interests of world domination. Why are we doing it? We need to shift our emphasis to our smaller colleges. Bengal, incidentally, has sent 31 scientists in ISRO. We could have said more about it. Now, when I have mentioned about superstitions, I also come to two small spoiler points. We have spoken about the greatness of ISRO, but we have not mentioned one word about the Devas-Antrix Scandal. The DevasAntrix scandal remains alive till today. A few months ago, the Delhi High Court pronounced the judgement which will make you shiver. They say that it is poison in the sea. The entire thing is a poisoned effort. It does not matter to me which regime did it. No regime gets into such great detail. It does not matter. We should have closed this chapter. We should have punished them because we remain vulnerable to an international fraud of something like Rs. 30,000 crores. Why should we pay it? Just because some technocrat made a dirty deal! We talk of the Nambi Effect. We celebrate. We can celebrate science. We can celebrate the effects of science. We can celebrate our victories, but do not, as the Chair has said, bring politics into it. This brings me to a point where I say that if you want to really move forward with more Chandrayaans, with more Adityas, with more progress in this domain, then, free science. You have made science subservient to the rules of bureaucracy. You have created Departments and Ministries of Science where you have placed scientists, but the rules remain the same. The rules remain the same. You have to have a separate set of rules. You have to go in for faith. You have to allow them to function, not shackle them with bureaucratic rules. My heart leaps when I hear that India has joined the six nations for the National Quantum Mission. This National Quantum Mission will take India forward. Whether ‘x’ regime stays or ‘y’ regime comes or ‘z’ regime goes, it doesn’t matter. This permanent contribution to the National Quantum Mission will take India forward. We should move higher. We have already moved high on the innovation index. The world over look at us to see how much we have innovated, not how much we have talked. How many patents have we filed? This is a hard fact. And we have actually gone up. But we need to go further up. This is where the focus should be. The tragic point about Indian science is that even the budget of ISRO has been cut by eight per cent. The tragic part of Indian science is that we do not contribute enough to research and development (R&D). It is an international shame. I am saying it to the Ministers that it is an international shame because when we make claims, we must substantiate claims. Contribution of our GDP to research and development is 0.65 per cent, out of which four per cent is contributed by the state sector, that is the Government sector, and only 0.2 per cent is contributed by the corporate sector in India. It is the same corporate sector for whom you have allowed remission of four lakh crore rupees. I am repeating it. You have remitted four lakh crore rupees by way of taxes from 2019. What have you got in return? Can you make them contribute half a per cent more? This is the remission of income tax or what you call corporation tax by way of favours. I am repeating the point. It is Rs.12.5 lakh crore. I am repeating it. Rs.12.5 lakh crore of bank customers’ money has been evaporated, has been extinguished and has been written off to favour big corporates. A big corporate, who belongs to a political party and who was also a Member of this House, has got away with Rs.5,000 crore….. My submission, Madam, is not politics. My submission is that this is the type of money that could get in to help the science sector with more funding. That is all. All I am saying is this. Don’t talk of lack of resources. Say that we have resources but they have gone in wrong directions. Now that we are conscious of our capabilities in science and technology, in industry and in Make in India, let us put more money in research and development. And where do we get the money from? I have already mentioned about Rs.5,000 crore that has been remitted. Do not permit these things to go on. We have had a long discussion on Space Mission. We have had an erudite discussion by Shri Jairam Ramesh, by hon. Chairman and by the Leader of the House. I thank all of you. We should have found time not only for the space and the moon but also for Manipur. We have had no time at all to discuss Manipur. With these words, I thank you and I support the Resolution in favour of congratulating Indian science as a whole for several generations.
