Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma today suggested that goddess Sita was a test tube baby, embarrassing the BJP which rushed to control the damage by disapproving his comments and asking him to maintain restraint in his speeches.

Sharma made the remarks last night in a speech which went viral today, inviting widespread scorn.

"All of us know that lord Ram returned from lanka in Pushpak Vimaan. This proves that vimaan (aircaft) existed then. It is said goddess Sita was born in a ghada (pitcher). At that point of time, some project of test tube baby existed," the BJP leader claimed.

"Janak (Sita's father) used a plough, and a baby came out from the pitcher. She became Sitaji. This is some kind of technology which is similar to today's test tube baby," he added.

His reference to Sita, believed to be born in Bihar's Mithila region and considered a revered figure there, alarmed the BJP's top brass as it was believed that it would not go down well with the believers, whom the party considered a key constituency.

Party sources said national general secretary Bhupender Yadav called up Sharma to convey its displeasure for his comments and asked him to exercise restraint in his speeches.

Only recently, Sharma -- whose several portfolios in the state government also included education -- had claimed that journalism had started during the Mahabharata era and likened Narada to Google.

"Your Google has started now, but our Google started a long time back. Narad muni could reach anywhere and transfer a message from one place to another by saying 'Narayana' three times," he said.

The BJP leaders have courted controversy by linking modern inventions with ancient India by claiming that advance medical procedures like cataract and plastic surgeries, theory of gravitation, nuclear tests and the Internet had all started during the ancient times.