Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been slammed by his critics after a brief interruption during his speech at the World Economic Forum due to an alleged teleprompter issue.
A teleprompter fault has reportedly stopped Indian PM Narendra Modi from continuing his speech during the crucial WEF session in the presence of the forum’s executive chairman Klaus Schwab.
A video showed Modi repeatedly looking to his left side and then asking WEF executive chairman Klaus Schwab when he could hear his speech and interpreter’s voice properly. Schwab replied to Modi that he can hear his speech very well.
Modi continued his speech from the beginning once the teleprompter glitch was rectified.
When teleprompter goes off, India’s so-called greatest public speaker of all time fails to find a single word! pic.twitter.com/ztGzWaCST8
— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) January 17, 2022
The interruption during Modi’s speech after the alleged teleprompter fault was considerably noticed by the netizens and a new wave of trolls has begun to slam the premier for facing embarrassment on the international forum.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said on Twitter, “Even teleprompter could not bear such lies.” Congress MP Karti Chidambaram had posted a satirical comment against Modi, saying, “A commission of enquiry should be formed, international conspiracy angle must be probed.”
Here are some takes from the Twitteratis:
The Real Pappu#TeleprompterPM pic.twitter.com/5hNXiSfTwt
— Prakash (@Hereprak) January 18, 2022
BJP IT cell getting ready to defend #TeleprompterPM pic.twitter.com/hciJHaqISJ
— Sarcasm ™️ (@SarcasticRofl) January 18, 2022
As Sahib’s brain box is absent,
Only Teleprompter is his talent !! 😛#TeleprompterPM pic.twitter.com/wZrAZTpO8D— Rudra Kanpur Wale (@RudraWale) January 17, 2022
The Incident The Reason #Modi pic.twitter.com/s6MbMjJ9uC
— Rishabh shah (@Pun_Intended___) January 17, 2022
The tale of “Teleprompter”
.
. #teleprompter #TeleprompterPM #Modi #NarendraModi #India #PMModi pic.twitter.com/xJ35GE7Egd— Shreya🦋 (@TrickOTreatt) January 17, 2022
When teleprompter goes off, India’s so-called greatest public speaker of all time fails to find a single word! pic.twitter.com/ztGzWaCST8
— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) January 17, 2022
Pratik Sinha, who runs the popular fact-checking outlet Alt News, said in a Twitter thread, “It is unlikely that PM had a teleprompter gaffe. If you look at the WEF version of the recording of his speech, someone in the background says, “Sir aap unse ek baar pooche ki sab jud gaye kya”. This portion is not clear in the video live-streamed on PM’s YouTube channel.”
“The PM repeats the whole speech again. The World Economic Forum (WEF) version of the recording can be seen on their YouTube channel. The address starts at 8:37,” he added.
Sinha said, “The teleprompter is typically in the front. When the PM is distracted, he looks to the side, where probably the team managing the event from the PMO is sitting. It is likely that someone from the team was trying to get the PM’s attention.”
The PM repeats the whole speech again. The World Economic Forum (WEF) version of the recording can be seen on their YouTube channel. The address starts at 8:37.
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) January 17, 2022
However, it is still unclear what caused an interruption in Modi’s speech.