Sita Was Test-Tube Baby, Declares Yogi Adityanath's Deputy

Lucknow: A minister in Uttar Pradesh has shared his radical views on ancient India's gifts to modern science, adding to the stream of such comments derided by many as outrageous. Lord Ram's wife Sita is an example of a test-tube baby, UP's Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma has suggested.

"When Sita was born there must have been something like a test-tube baby. (Her father King) Janak ploughed the land and a baby came out of an earthen pot, she became Sita. This means technology similar to a test-tube baby must have existed," Dinesh Sharma says in a video that became a rage on social media on Friday.

He was apparently speaking at an event on Wednesday to mark "Hindi journalism day". At the same function, the minister shared another gem and said journalism "started during the Mahabharata".

Dinesh Sharma said the character Sanjaya, who described the epic war of Kurukshetra to king Dhritarashtra was providing a sort of "live telecast".

He also believed that "our google" started in ancient India, with the mythological character "Narad Muni" who was known to be an informer. "He could reach anywhere and transfer a message from one place to another by saying 'Narayana' three times," said the minister'.

In April, Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb had embarrassed the BJP when he declared that internet originated from ancient India. He had also used the example of Sanjay, the narrator, saying he was able to describe the events on the battlefield because of internet and technology.