Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy backs CM Biplab Kumar Deb's remark on 'internet'

Roy said Deb's observation on the happenings of the Puranic period are 'topical'.

"Tripura Chief Minister’s observations about the happenings of the Puranic period are topical. It is virtually impossible to conceive of devices like ‘Divya drishti’,Pushpaka Ratha’,etc without some kind of prototype and study thereon," Roy tweeted as he backed the newly elected state Chief Minister.

Triggering a controversy, Deb has said internet used to exist during the time of Mahabharata.

Biplab Deb was  quoted as saying during a public event by The Economic Times: "India has been using internet since ages. In Mahabharata, Sanjay was blind but he narrated what was happening in the battlefield to Dhritarashtra anyway."

"This was due to internet and technology. Satellite also existed during that period," he said.

Deb said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a push to digitisation of India.

Under Deb's leadership, BJP scripted a massive victory in the Assembly polls in the state in recent times.

He took oath as the Chief Minister recently.

Twitter went on criticising and trolling the Chief Minister over his 'internet' remark since Tuesday.

Attacking Deb, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted: "Lazy archaeologists have been busy digging up stones & rocks when they should have been unearthing remains of computers & server banks of ancient Indian internet."

Eminent author and historian William Dalrymple posted on Twitter: "What reasonable person could argue with this? More evidence of the BJP's magnificent grasp of history Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb says internet existed during Mahabharata."

Lawyer Prashant Bhusan said: "BJP's TripuraCM BiplabDeb echoes Modi&claims that internet& satellites existed in time of Mahabharata! Remember Modi claiming that we had plastic surgery in ancient India since Lord Ganesh's trunk was engrafted by plastic surgery!Must be given Nobel prize!."

BJP leader and Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) Dr Satyapal Singh had earlier triggered a controversy with his remark on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

He said Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution was 'scientifically wrong'.

"Darwin's theory (of evolution) is scientifically wrong. It needs to change in school and college curriculum. Since the man is seen on Earth he has always been a man," he was quoted as saying to media during an event in January.

Indian scientists did not welcome Singh's remarks.

They had drafted a letter against Satyapal Singh's statement.

"We, the Scientists, science communicators and scientifically oriented members of public, are deeply pained by your claim. It is factually incorrect to state that the evolutionary principle has been rejected by the scientific community. On the contrary, every new discovery adds support to Darwin’s insights. One should also note that it is no longer merely a mechanism for organic evolution, but several other evolutionary phenomena in nature," read the letter.