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Journalism of Courage
For a whole decade, health organisations the world over have been preaching that there is only one cure for AIDS: information. It is a pity that the message has not reached the Minister for Science and Technology yet. Since the minister also holds the Human Resource Development portfolio, the message is unlikely to reach schools and colleges either. Joshi8217;s statement to alarmed men of science at the National Institute of Immunology NII relating AIDS to western aid could have been dismissed as a feeble attempt at humour, had he not chosen to enlarge upon his theme. The uninformed harangue that followed has exposed all that is wrong with the BJP8217;s brand of swadeshi. Was Joshi suggesting that the NII produced its HIV kits with Vedic technology when he lauded the transfer of swadeshi technology to swadeshi companies? It is common knowledge that this technology was developed through judicious use of the scientific method, a system of applied logic that is exclusively of western provenance.
It is ridiculous torefuse to give credit where it is due, and doubly so to regard the West as the source of all that is wrong with the world. All progress in science owes exclusively to the scientific method. Joshi8217;s belief that the study of the Sanskrit texts will lead to a great technological leap forward is valid only to the extent that new properties and uses for materials may be found there. But it would be remarkably optimistic of him to expect that whole new technologies lurk in the ancient texts. For that, Indian scientists will have to fall back upon the Baconian tradition, which the swadeshi school seems to heartily mistrust. Too bad, but the Nyaya school of logic is simply not up to the job. The minister should realise that in any attempt at an exclusionist indigenisation of science and technology, progress will be the first casualty.
