Failure of science

Sir, - This has reference to the article `World According to Prof. B.M. Hegde' (Open Page, June 12). No, Prof. Hegde has not made anyone realise the need for humanism in science, as he has hoped for. In fact, I believe his goal is to put science in all its avatars, humanistic, inhumanistic, non-humanistic and what not, and he has taken a gigantic step towards reaching it. How else would one be able to understand the polemic, running to a full tabloid page length?

Prof. Hegde has offered an impressive list of failures of science (practised entirely in the reductionist realm), with a deafening silence on its salutary effects (obviously there is none, as the holistic realm has been forgotten after the Vedas).

By proxy, he is putting forth a claim on behalf of astrology (not a science in his thinking, ``it is not science or astrology that is bad...'') as a field of formal study in our universities, leading to, ironically, a Bachelor of Science degree (of the holistic, Vedic variety, I suppose!) and further qualifications. I will add one more failure of science. It has given the opportunity to Prof. Hegde to have his views disseminated widely!

Raghuram Ekambaram,

New Delhi

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