Since the Hindu nationalist BJP took the reigns of power a decade ago, there has been a deliberate promotion of a pattern of policymaking in education, which is based more on religion and glorification of those aspects of the past which are not verified by reason. In the past, India was seen as a centre for the development of rational thought. Charvaka contributed to rational philosophy, while Charaka and Aryabhatta contributed significantly to medicine and astronomy. Hilariously, what is glorified today is plastic surgery being used to plant elephant's heads on Lord Ganesha or Karna being born from the ear as an example of genetic science. Aviation technology is also attributed to the ancient glorious past when "pushpak viman" and interplanetary travel prevailed. An absurd number of ludicrous claims are being pushed out with mythology as proof.

Such things are not only taught in schools but also determine the allocation of funds for science and technology research. We saw considerable funding being coordinated by IIT Delhi for research into Panchgavya, a mixture of five products from Cow: milk, curd, ghee (clarified butter), urine and dung. This is supposed to be a panacea for the treatment of various diseases. The Cow urine is being promoted separately as being of medicinal use. Before this government came to power in 2014, its parent, the RSS, was already involved in birthing many organisations to promote religion-based knowledge through school education.

Dinanath Batra has been heading the RSS outfit, Shiksha Bachao Abhiyan Samiti and RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas (SSUN) for decades. His nine books have been translated into Gujarati and introduced in 42,000 schools in Gujarat. The sampling of Batra's books gives a good idea of what is being implemented currently. A quote from one of the sets of books, 'Tejonmaya Bharat' (Radiant Bharat), tells us about Dr Balkrishna Ganpat Matapurkar, whose research was inspired by the Mahabharata. He narrates that a huge mass of flesh came from Gandhari's womb. (Rishi) Dwaipayan Vyas was called. He observed this hard mass of flesh and preserved it in a cold tank with specific medicines. He then divided the mass of flesh into 100 parts and kept them separately in 100 tanks full of ghee for two years. After two years, 100 Kauravas were born of it. On reading this, he (Matapurkar) realised that stem cell technology was part of our heritage.

According to him, the Indian rishis (sages), using their yoga vidya, would attain divya drishti (divine vision). In Mahabharata, Sanjaya, sitting inside a palace in Hastinapur and using his divya shakti (divine power), would give a live telecast of the battle to the blind Dhritarashtra. He does not doubt that this was the precursor of the television. What we know today as the motorcar existed during the Vedic period. It was called anashva rath. Usually, a rath (chariot) is pulled by horses, but an anashva rath means the one that runs without horses or yantra-rath, which is today a motorcar. The Rig Veda refers to this.

RSS has also set up a consultative body called Bharatiya Shiksha Niti Ayog (BSNA), whose policies guide Modi's government to "correct or Indianise" the national education system. Now, organisations like the Indian Council of Historical Research and the National Council for Education, Research and Training, amongst others, have heads whose qualifications are not excellence in their disciplines but proximity to the ideology of the ruling dispensation.

Y. Sudarshan was appointed as Chief of ICHR. He was out to prove the Historicity of our great mythological epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. During the incumbent government firmly in the saddle, bypassing rational thinking and scientific methods has become the norm. This government has been promoting Baba Ramdev in a big way. We recall how his Coronil, claiming to be a treatment for COVID, was promoted. The Supreme Court gave a verdict whereby Ramdev was warned not to advertise irrational products and misleading ads about the modern system of medicine.

Indian Science Congress has, for the last many years, been accepting papers which have no scientific basis and are based on mythology. Pained by this all prominent scientists came together and issued a statement calling upon the government to stop undermining scientific methods and thinking. "They point out that this attitude has been particularly evident in the government's promotion of unverified or unscientific ideas, exaggeration of ancient Indian knowledge, and certain responses during the COVID-19 pandemic." Further, the statement "… emphasises the need for a united front among scientists, academics, and policymakers to combat the erosion of scientific integrity and promote rational, evidence-based discourse in the country."

While our Constitution mandates the promotion of scientific temper, the present regime bypasses rational approaches in science research and education and in matters related to social policies. The New Education Policy 2020 focuses on 'Indian Knowledge Systems', which basically means promoting a religion-based understanding of knowledge in the fields of material and social sciences.

Political think tanks and ideologies which support the movement for social change towards equality try to adopt rational and scientific approaches to knowledge and social issues. Throughout Indian history, those who want to impose the status quo of social relations and maintain inequality generally resort to religion-based knowledge, asserting mythology as the gospel truth and imposing it on society. The communal fundamental streams accept technology with great avidity, while they equally dislike rational thinking and scientific spirit. Our Constitution, emerging from the anti-colonial struggle, incorporated the promotion of a scientific spirit inherently as the guiding light for future policies towards social change. Today's regime is opposed to the equality of castes, genders and religions. No wonder it bypasses this core spirit of the Indian Constitution.

The welcome statement of these outstanding scientists is a timely appeal to restore the path of our social and scientific policies, which are founded on reason and scientific temper.