After Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s controversial remarks on millennials using Ola and Uber, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, while discussing GDP and mathematics, said “Maths never helped Einstein discover gravity”.
He said so while speaking to reporters after a meeting with the Board of Trade.
Goyal assured that India is headed towards a “$5 trillion economy” and not to believe the calculations seen on TV. The country will grow at 12 percent from the current 6-7 percent, he added stating, “Don’t get into that maths. That maths never helped Einstein discover gravity.”
“If he had only gone by structured formulae and what was past knowledge, I don’t think there would have been any innovation in this world,” Goyal added.
After jokes and memes flooded Twitter, the Minister issued a clarification stating, “The comment that I made had a certain context. Unfortunately, some friends have sought to remove the context, pick up one line and create a very mischievous narrative.”
Currently, the growth rate of the country is at its lowest (5 percent) in six years.
The automobile industry is one of the hardest hits with sales falling heavily in August. In response to this, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had commented that there is confusion about BS6 norms and young people are increasingly preferring ride-sharing apps over buying vehicles. This sparked a furore on Twitter with #SayItLikeNirmalaTai and #BoycottMillennials trending on social media.
Also Read: #SayItLikeNirmalaTai Trends On Twitter
