The agenda at this march: Save science

A group of scientists, activists, teachers and students during the march at Parliament Street. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

‘I march to save science’. ‘Mythology is not history’. ‘Stop spreading unscientific beliefs’. ‘Do no mix science and spiritualism’. The placards were varied, as were the people holding them. At 3.30 pm on Saturday, a group of scientists, activists, teachers and students gathered at Mandi House to march to Parliament Street — “not against anything”, as one biologist said, but to “let the society know that science is important”.

This was the Delhi chapter of the ‘March for Science’, the second edition of people in the scientific community taking to the streets across the world. Similar rallies were held in many other cities across the country. Krishna Sengupta, who had taught Physics to students at Delhi University’s Miranda House for 35 years, leaned on her walking stick, taking slow steps. “I won’t be able to walk all the way, but I feel strongly about how science is being neglected by our government, so I had to come,” she said. “I am quite proud of our ancient inventions but all science cannot be attributed to that.”

The march on Saturday, participants said, was to highlight several things, among them the pace with which “unscientific ideas and superstitions are being propagated”, as the pamphlet stated. In the speeches, there were mentions of MoS HRD Satyapal Singh’s comments on evolution and Science & Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan’s comments on Stephen Hawking. There was also talk of science conflated with mythology, public scientific institutions asked to raise funds from private channels, rewriting textbooks to diminish scientific temper, and cut in funds for research.