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An inspection of the government schools in his area led Uttarakhand Education Minister Arvind Pandey to a classroom at the Mahila Inter College in Dehradun. As the video (above) shows, minister Arvind Pandey took it upon himself to school the teacher, which led to a comical experience in ignorance.

Because he was inspecting the quality of education, Pandey decided to test the class 8 teacher, asking her what two negative signs would add up to, and then proceeded to rewrite the rules of mathematics. “Minus plus minus is plus,” he declared with aplomb, even though the teacher tried to correct him by pointing out that the result is minus.

It didn’t end here. Pandey went on to ask the teacher how much minus one (-1) and minus one (-1) add up to. “Zero” was his answer, he said and did not concede ground, even though the correct answer is minus two (-2).

“I have also studied science,” said Pandey, and kindly explained for everyone’s benefit that (-) + (-)= (+) in mathematics but (-) in chemistry.

He also blamed the teacher for using a guidebook and not the prescribed textbook in the classroom, warning her as he left the classroom, “I am sparing you because you are a woman.”

Despite heavy criticism online, he stood his ground and said that he didn’t wish to “disrespect” any teacher. “Neither the teacher nor the students were carrying any book. The teacher was teaching with the help of a ‘key’, a book with questions and their solutions,” he insisted.