Sanskrit in IITs: Manish Sisodia mocks Smriti, says Java, C++ should be declared 'anti-national'

New Delhi, Apr 26: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia mocked Smriti Irani on twitter after HRD minister informed Lok Sabha that IITs have been asked to teach Sanskrit language for facilitating study of science and technology.

Sisodia took to micro-blogging site asking the union minister to declare computer language as 'anti-national' after she requested the premier engineering institutes to teach Sanskrit.

Taking a dig at the union minister's statement, Sisodia tweeted, "One should understand Sanskrit is the only language which can compete with C++, Java, SOL, Python, Javascript. All computers in India using languages like C+, Java, SOL, Python..should b declared anti-national once IITians learn working in sanskrit."

A panel, chaired by former CEC N Gopalaswami, in its report had suggested that IITs may facilitate study of science and technology as reflected in Sanskrit literature along with inter-disciplinary study of Sanskrit and modern subjects, HRD Minister Smriti Irani said in a written reply on Monday.

"Accordingly, IITs have been requested to teach Sanskrit language especially with reference to study of works which contain scientific knowledge," Irani said.

However, it must be noted that Smriti Irani never said that Sanskrit should be taught as a programming language.

Teaching a language (spoken, written) is different from programming language but the Delhi Minister gave an entirely different twist by merging two different issues.

At a time when people in India are debating over relevance of studying and learning Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language is gaining immense popularity in countries like Germany. As many as 14 foreign universities have included Sanskrit in their syllabus/courses.

OneIndia News