'Mischievous': Goyal on Twitterati ridiculing Einstein gaffe

With Twitterati and the Opposition parties widely ridiculing his gaffe in crediting the Theory of Gravity to Albert Einstein, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday that people are building "mischievous and baseless" narratives using his remarks.

"This is a very mischievous and baseless narrative sought to be presented at my closing comments at the Board of Trade meeting this morning. 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," the Minister said.

Speaking at the meeting, Goyal had said that India should not be concerned about gross domestic product (GDP) calculations as shown on TV, as "maths didn't help Einstein discover gravity."

"If he (Einstein) had only gone by structured formulae and what was past knowledge, I don't think there would have been any innovation in this world," he added.

On Wednesday, his colleague, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, had a tough day with netizens.

Sitharaman's comment linking millennials' preference for Uber and Ola cabs to the auto sector crisis had set off a flurry of criticism on social media. The sarcastic hashtag "#BoycottMillennials" quickly became a top trend.

Sitharaman said millennials choosing app-based cab aggregators over committing money to EMIs for new cars had affected the auto sector, which has seen a double-digit fall in sales for both two and four-wheelers. IANS