The narrator of epic Mahabharata described the battle of Kurukshtetra to the blind King Dhritarashtra through internet and technology, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb claimed on Tuesday.

“How could Dhritarashtra see through Sanjay’s eyes? This means technology was there, internet was there, satellite was there,” Deb said during a workshop on Computerisation and Reforms at Pragna Bhawan in Agartala, IANS reported.

He added that Indians invented technology more than a thousand years ago and that the National Informatics Centre – the government’s premier science and technology organisation – was just using these tools, the Hindustan Times reported.

“I congratulate the NIC [National Informatics Centre] for their jobs, but you people didn’t discover technology,” Deb said. “It was discovered much earlier. Even the European countries can claim that they have invented the technology but in reality, the technology was ours.”

Deb joined a growing list of Bharatiya Janata Party ministers who have commented about technology in ancient India.

In February, junior education minister Satyapal Singh said some Indian mantras had spoken of the laws of motion much before Isaac Newton discovered them, NDTV reported. The chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research, Y Sudershan Rao, has also said that the Ramayana and Mahabharata were proof that Indians were scientifically advanced.