Rahul, BJP spar over Modi’s Davos speech

New Delhi (PTI): After Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to restart his Davos Agenda address, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took a swipe saying “even the teleprompter could not take so much lies”, even as BJP leaders pointed to a “technical glitch” at event organiser World Economic Forum’s end.

There was no official reaction from the government or the WEF on the incident.

Several Congress leaders and social media users claimed that it was a “teleprompter gaffe” as Prime Minister Modi had to pause and then restart his special address to the World Economic Forum’s online Davos Agenda 2022 summit, but BJP leaders and many others pointed out that it was a technical glitch due to which the WEF people were not able to patch the PM and requested him to start again.

In an apparent dig at Prime Minister Modi, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi, “Even the teleprompter could not take so much lies.”

Fact-checking website Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha said it is unlikely that the prime minister 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’ (Sir, ask them once if everyone is connected). This portion is not clear in the video live-streamed on PM’s YouTube channel.” “After this, the PM questions if he and the interpreter can be heard properly, to which (WEF executive chairman) Klaus Schwab responds stating that he can.

“However, Schwab interrupts the PM’s speech to give a brief introduction. The PM repeats the whole speech again,” Sinha said, recounting the events from Monday evening during the prime minister’s address.