‘Internet Did Exist During Mahabharata’: Tripura CM Doubles Down

“Don’t get confused, don’t confuse others,” said Deb, and suggested the doubters simply have a dim view of India.

Newly-elevated Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb.

(Photo: ANI)

Newly elected Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb hit out at “narrow-minded” people for finding it difficult to believe that internet and satellite technology existed during the time of Mahabharata.

A day after he made the bizarre comment, the Tripura chief minister went a step further to defend it in the face of criticism.

Narrow minded people find it tough to believe this. They want to belittle their own nation and think highly of other countries. Believe the truth. Don’t get confused and don’t confuse others.

Biplab Deb, Tripura CM, to ANI

On Tuesday, 17 April, while addressing a regional workshop on computerisation of the Public Distribution System as well as reforms in Agartala, the 46-year-old BJP leader gave evidence for his claim in the form of a particular episode in the Mahabharata, wherein Sanjay narrates the happenings of the war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas to the blind king Dhritarashtra.

This is the country where the episodes of the Mahabharata war were narrated to Dhritarashtra by Sanjay. This means technology was there, internet was there, satellite was there.

Biplab Kumar Deb, as <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/internet-existed-during-mahabharat-period-says-tripura-chief-minister/story-3EqLid8wYczGYsthORU9UN.html">quoted</a> by <i>Hindustan Times</i>

According to media reports, Deb further went on to say that such technologies were not the inventions of Europeans or Americans, but rather those of Indians.

He lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his emphasis on digitisation, saying that such a push would make the Public Distribution System (PDS) more transparent.

Not the First Bizarre Comment By a BJP Minister

Earlier this year, Minister of State for Human Resources and Development (HRD) Satyapal Singh had claimed that Charles Darwin’s theory of human evolution was “scientifically wrong”.

Meanwhile, PM Narendra Modi himself said in October 2014 that Lord Ganesha had undergone plastic surgery via technology that Indians possessed at the time.

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(With inputs from ANI and Hindustan Times)