PM cautions against use of science for illiberal purposes

Prime minister Manmohan Singh yesterday cautioned the nation against putting products of science to illiberal uses.

Inaugurating the 98 th Indian Science Congress at Kattankulathur, about 40 km from Chennai, Singh pointed out that though science had taken strides even in societies that were hardly modern or liberal, the products of science had been put to illiberal use there.

He said that he belonged to a generation that worried about the links between science and society. He added that people had believed that a scientific temper would help India transition from a traditional to modern society.

''We saw the development of science as intrinsic to the advancement of modernism, pluralism and liberalism.''

Singh cited several instances of scientific knowledge being put to use for destructive purposes, such as the eugenics experiments in Nazi Germany and the use of poison gas in wars. Among the constructive uses that science had been put to, he listed breeding of new crop varieties and the advancement of agro-chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

The examples illustrated why the approach to scientific knowledge needs to be value based, though science by itself may be value neutral.