During a discussion on Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill, 2019, BJP MP Satyapal Singh noted that ‘our culture says we are children of rishis’.
Addressing the Lok Sabha, he said:
Our culture says we are the children of rishis. I don’t want to offend people who believe that we are children of monkeys but according to our culture we are children of rishis.
Satyapal Singh was trying to make the point that human rights is a ‘western concept’ and that people who wrote the Indian Constitution were inspired from America Constitution.
Challenging his ideas and opinions, DMK MP Kanimozhi said:
Unfortunately, my ancestors are not rishis. My ancestors are homo sapiens, as science says, and my parents are shudras. They were not even born of any god, or part of any god. They were born outside and I am here and many people from my state are here because of the social justice movement and the human rights which we fought for till today and we will continue doing that.
This is not the first time he has made such a statement, though. Earlier in 2018 – when he was Minister of State for Human Resource Development – he had demanded that the theory of evolution taught in schools and colleges should be changed.
His reasoning back then was – no one has seen an ape turning into man.
Darwin’s theory (of evolution of humans) 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. Nobody, including our ancestors, in written or oral, have said they saw an ape turning into a man.