'Racial Purity Is Not A Thing': Scientist Leading Gene Study Slams Rahul Gandhi, Journalists For Misleading Reportage

Niraj Rai, the group head of ancient DNA lab at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences Lucknow, on Wednesday (1 June) slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and some journalists for propagating a "mischievous" media report on alleged "racial purity" study on Indians.

Attaching a screenshot of a report, titled "Culture Ministry to study 'racial purity' of Indians", published in The New Indian Express, Gandhi had on Tuesday (31 May) tweeted, "The last time a country had a culture ministry studying ‘racial purity’, it didn’t end well. India wants job security & economic prosperity, not 'racial purity', Prime Minister".

Gandhi's veiled attack at PM Modi apparently referred to the Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party's views on racial purity, which resulted in persecution and mass murder of millions of Jews.

Responding to Gandhi's tweet, Rai said, "Journalists and Politicians are at worst. Mr. Gandhi- Racial purity is not a thing and race is not a biologically supported context".

He added that the concept of racial purity "has been a tool for politicians to propagating racism and should not be conflated with genetic ancestry".

Rai also slammed TNIE for the "mischievous" report.

"Extremely upset to hear this mischievous article by The New Indian Express where our research being described as studying “racial purity"," Rai tweeted.

"DNA research has great potential for improving our understanding of human health and history and should not be used to support discriminatory ideas," he added.