In a bid to support the central government's target to make India a $5 trillion economy, irrespective of an economic slowdown, the minister said: “Do not get into the calculations that you see on television. Do not get into that maths. Maths never helped Einstein discover gravity".
The apparent slip of the tongue from the minister came while ignoring the fact that it was not Albert Einstein but Sir Issac Newton who discovered gravity, using the rules of physics as well as mathematics.
Netizens were quick to flood Twitter with humorous memes and one-liners.
With nearly 30,000 mentions already, #Einstein was trending on Twitter on Thursday. Other hashtags making the rounds on the subject included #Physics, #Maths and #Newton.
— Ankur Bhardwaj (@Bhayankur) September 12, 2019
— Joy (@Joydas) September 12, 2019
— aparna (@FuschiaScribe) September 12, 2019
Taking the opportunity to school the government on the basics of mathematics and physics, India’s opposition party Congress tweeted:
Former Finance Minister @PiyushGoyal is correct, Einstein did not require maths to discover gravity, but Sir Isaac Newton did.
— Congress (@INCIndia) September 12, 2019
FYI, maths is also required to #FixTheEconomy. pic.twitter.com/Nr3QyYbPpA
However, in a bid to pacify the online trolling, while speaking to the media the commerce minister stated that his words are being interpreted without the intended context.
#WATCH Union Minister Piyush Goyal's clarification on his recent comments: The comment that I made had a certain context. Unfortunately some friends have sought to remove the context, pickup one line and create a very mischievous narrative. pic.twitter.com/bzugSwSTyi
— ANI (@ANI) September 12, 2019
Even after the minister’s clarification statement, trolls continued to poke fun at the minister.
And @PiyushGoyal even while clarifying still does not figure out why people are laughing about him relating "Einstein" to "Gravity". I am pretty sure Math is never gonna help BJP Leaders discover their brains :P
— Darshan Mondkar (@DaMoMusings) September 12, 2019
This is the second time this week that a statement from a minister has shattered the internet with an avalanche of memes and jokes.
Earlier this week, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman became a target of trolling after she blamed the “mindset of millennials” for the slump in the Indian auto sector.
India lost the tag of world’s fastest growing economy earlier this year with China recording 6.2 percent growth rate in April-June whereas India could barely reach 5 percent growth rate in the same period.
