New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the World Economic Forum on Monday evening.
โThis bouquet includes the temperament of us Indians,โ Modi said in Hindi, modulating his voice and raising a finger for emphasis as he uttered the word โtemperamentโ.
โIt contains our talent,โ he continued, again emphasising the word โtalentโ with a raised finger.
As Modi did so, he stole a glance to his left.
โWhichโฆ,โ he said.
He looked again to his left, this time turning his head.
He kept looking, his expression changing, then he turned to face the microphone again and raised both his hands as if throwing them up, then looked down and plugged in an earphone into his right ear and looked up again.
Then Modi said: โKlausโฆ theek se suna raha hai?โ
The host, WEF executive chairman Klaus Schwab, reassured him: โI hear you.โ
While Schwab was still speaking, Modi continued: โAnd, and our interpreterโs voice is also reaching everyone?โ
As he spoke, his voice unsure, Modi was glancing to his right.
Schwab said: โWe hear you very well and I would suggest that we start the official session now.โ
There was an awkward silence. Modi nodded, standing before the microphone on the world stage, speechless.
Once the glitch (possibly the teleprompter malfunctioning) was rectified, Modi started his speech all over again.
The clip of the Prime Ministerโs pause was being widely shared on social media.
Several on Twitter, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, made associations between a possible teleprompter failure and the prime ministerโs purported inability to continue speaking.
โEven the teleprompter was not able to say so many lies,โ Gandhi wrote in Hindi.
Journalist Rohini Singh tweeted: โSeems some poor technicians in the PMO will lose their job today. Just hope they arenโt charged with sedition/UAPA and what not. Noida media must be on standby to take out some Khalistani link to the embarrassment today!โ
Gaurav Pandhi, whose Twitter bio identifies him as national coordinator of the Congressโs digital communications and social media, posted: โWhile addressing the WEF at Davos, the โteleprompterโ went off and the GREAT ORATOR had no idea of his speech and what to speak.โ
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