The Twitter trolls are out in force today after Indian Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal said Albert Einstein discovered gravity. Of course, it was Isaac Newton who actually discovered gravity.
Albert Einstein discovered gravity?
Many tweets like this one quickly filled up the micro-blogging platform after he made the remark in an interview.
Einstein discovered gravity (that too without Maths) and Newton saw him do it and stole his idea. pic.twitter.com/4op1W6Ah8A
— Ankur Bhardwaj (@Bhayankur) September 12, 2019
Goyal made the remark during a panel when speaking in support of the Modi government’s goal of making India a $5 trillion economy—whether or not the South Asian nation enters an economic slowdown as it is expected to do.
“Do not get into the calculations that you see on television,” he said. “Do not get into that maths. Maths never helped Einstein discover gravity.”
In addition to the glaring error that Einstein discovered gravity, trolls also poked fun at Goyal for essentially saying that math isn’t needed to discuss the economy. The hashtags #Einstein and #Maths were trending on Twitter in India following the remark.
The opposition Indian National Congress took advantage of the opportunity to call Goyal out for the mistake about Einstein and also point out that math is indeed required to do economics.
Former Finance Minister @PiyushGoyal is correct, Einstein did not require maths to discover gravity, but Sir Isaac Newton did.
FYI, maths is also required to #FixTheEconomy. pic.twitter.com/Nr3QyYbPpA
— Congress (@INCIndia) September 12, 2019
Attempt at clarification
Goyal later tried to clarify his remark about Einstein, but he seems to have missed the entire point of all the trolling that was occurring. He claims people have taken his remark out of context and used it to “create a very mischievous narrative.” Based on this remark, it’s unclear whether he’s aware that Newton was the one who actually discovered gravity. In fact, Twitter trolls latched onto his attempt at clarification by mocking him for not realizing his mistake.
