Maybe he feels a need to compete with western religious wack jobs and the bar to out-do one another is pretty high.
Not just Christian and Muslim hardliners have idiocy in their science ranks. A Hindu friend, who I sent this to, said he once accidentally insulted a female PHD scientist with some off hand secular remark. He then told me that she divorced her husband, took the kids and moved back to India, and joined a cult. Wackiness knows no educational barriers.
I read a tweet in the NPR site by someone Remi Raji that says..."Please do rename this mega science event also as INDIAN SUPERSTITION CONGRESS. Since past few years science congress has become a stage to glorify superstitions and myths, then why don’t they rename the event as well"