New Delhi, July 21: The Lok Sabha on Friday witnessed an argument between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Satyapal Singh and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Kanimozhi during a debate on the Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill, 2019. After Satyapal Singh said human beings are descendants of sages and not monkeys, rejecting Darwin’s theory of evolution, Kanimozhi countered him saying her ancestors were not rishis.

"Our culture says we are the children of rishis. I don’t want to offend people who believe that we are children of monkeys but according to our culture we are children of rishis," Singh said openly dismissing Darwin's theory that says 'man evolved from ape'. The BJP lawmaker made the statement to make a point that Indian culture has always valued human beings. His remark drew sharp retort from the Opposition benches. Lord Hanuman Was an 'Aryan', Says Satyapal Singh.

Reacting to Singh’s statement, Kanimozhi said: "Unfortunately, my ancestors are not rishis. My ancestors are homo sapiens, as science says, and my parents are Shudras." "They were not even born of any god, or part of any god. They were born outside and I am here and many people from my state are here because of the social justice movement and the human rights which we fought for till today and we would continue doing that," she added.

Debate between Satypal Singh and Kanimozhi:

TMC MP Sugata Roy said the remark is an antithesis of the Constitution. "Article 51(A), sub-Section (h) of the Constitution says that it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to develop scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. What Satyapal Ji has said is that we have not evolved from monkeys. He is denying the theory of evolution of Darwin," Roy said.

Singh, who represents Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh, had earlier too rejected Darwin’s theory saying it “scientifically wrong”. When he was Minister of State for HRD, he had said he does not consider himself a descendant of monkeys.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 21, 2019 01:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).