Union home minister, Rajnath Singh said on Friday that India’s ‘dhoti wearing pandits had better knowledge of space science than the America’s NASA scientists.

At a student function in Delhi college, Singh said, “USA’s NASA can make the prediction that after a month, solar and lunar eclipse will happen at this time… the media says America has such advanced technology, it is predicted one and-a-half years, two years ago. I can say with confidence that if you go to the dhoti-wearing pandit in the neighbourhood, he will pull out the ‘panchang’ and tell you when the lunar and solar eclipses happened 100 years ago and when they will happen 100 years later.”

Singh was reportedly speaking on the value of Indian education. In his half-hour-long speech, the union home minister told students that ‘Dil Maange More’ culture was not Indian ‘sanskaar(values)’ adding that India needed a ‘comprehensive change’ in the country’s education system.

He told students that Rishi Badhongan and not Pythagoras was responsible for the origin of Pythagoras theorem.

“Children, I can give you an example, but I don’t want to take you too far, so you can verify it later… Hundreds of years ago, there was a sage in India, Manish, who did work on quadratic equations… do you know about the Pythagoras theorem?… I want to say that Pythagoras did not create the theorem, and I have no qualms in saying that Pythagoras got information of this theory from Bharat… If anyone gave this theory, it was Rishi Bodhangan, that’s why it is called Bodhangan Praved,” he was quoted by Indian Express.

Singh said that ‘Bharat’ possessed all the fundamentals in its ‘pracheen granths’ (ancient texts) to make the country a ‘Jagatguru'(world leader) adding that students must decide between the ‘Western ‘dil maange more’ culture or Indian values.