You're referring to the secular intellectuals. What about right wing intellectuals like Rajiv Malhotra, Arun Shourie, S. Gurumurthy, Swapan Das Gupta, Bibek Debroy etc? At least they never make embarrassing statements like 'Science is nothing compared to astrology' or 'The Mughals brought caste system to India'
All those intellectuals you mention are affiliated to RSS or its sister organizations one way or other and share a healthy mutual respect for each other. RSS has a different role to play and other organizations have a different role to play.
The Brains Behind Modi Sarkar | Tehelka.com
"The VIF’s alleged links with the RSS has come in handy for Modi’s critics. Sangh leaders regularly visit the VIF, while RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and BJP leader LK Advani actively engage with it. Recently, Bhagwat was at the VIF to release former diplomat OP Gupta’s book
Defining Hindutva. Since the VIF emerged out of the Vivekananda Kendra, critics believe it would be a mistake to consider the VIF separate from the RSS.
“VIF is an RSS project,” says a critic. “The first thing you notice when you enter the building is a photograph of Eknath Ranade. VIF is filled with right-wing officials. As they were marginalised intellectually, they created their own think-tank. It is a desperate attempt to get acknowledged in the intellectual world. If it is not so, then why does the RSS chief keep visiting the VIF?”
Now coming to your point. Astrology is science. The minister might have been less articulate or not good at communicating this and the media is known to distort everything the right wing leaders have to say to paint them evil.
Muslim invasion did exacerbate manifold the pre-existing caste system. Read Megasthenes to know that there were very very few people in India who were considered outcastes or lived in the margins of the society. This changed with the coming of war and deprivation in the Indian society and it is not wrong to state the the prevalent caste system is the fruit of this event.
Dear sushamaji i can understand the occasion you were speaking needed such rhetorics but gita doesn't require your petty special status, the message it contains is universal and it will remain relevant as long as humanity exists.
It is just like any other official recognition. If we do not celebrate Independence Day, it does not mean we are not independent. So Gita getting official recognition is just in the way of the world.
On a serious note I'd recommend the RSS conduct an RSS JEE entrance exam so that intellectual and dynamic individuals become part of the organization. Too many loons are now an integral part of the RSS which pushes the intellectuals away from the ideology. I admire the social work that the RSS does and has done though 
