NEW DELHI – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been mocked after a teleprompter stopped working during his address at the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda summit.
The technical glitch occurred during his address and seemed to catch the Indian premier off guard and he had to stop midway while addressing. The clip soon went viral and continued to trend on social sites.
In the clip, the puzzled BJP leader started looking to his left side repeatedly and then asked the WEF official, whether his speech and his interpreter’s voice could be heard properly.
Modi addressing the World Economic Forum. See what happens when the teleprompter hangs up! pic.twitter.com/v7ZUTu8mEp
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) January 18, 2022
Modi’s expressions were fluctuating as 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.
World Economic Forum halted the broadcast for some time amid the embarrassing moment for the Indian premier as he was mocked for not being able to speak for a minute without a display device. Many social media users even called the WEF moment a national embarrassment.
As the technical glitch was fixed, the right-wing Hindu leader continued his speech all over again.
Here are some of the reactions on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/puntinational/status/1483157373921656832
https://twitter.com/GhanshyamMeenaG/status/1483162939280396288
https://twitter.com/ckchetanck/status/1483276277486620674
United Nations declared Mr. Modi as "'Best Teleprompter Prime Minister'" in the world
Let's celebrate 18th January 2022 as #TeleprompterPM Day pic.twitter.com/YH6F7IjvtP
— 𝑪𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒚𝒂🛡 (@catale7a) January 18, 2022
Modi during Teleprompter debacle pic.twitter.com/o3QtVmhALL
— Ex Bhakt (@exbhakt_) January 18, 2022
Modi ji when teleprompter stops mid speech pic.twitter.com/jmY1QaIuEC
— STALIN (@Stalinrx) January 17, 2022
Meanwhile, opposition leaders especially his key vocal opponent Rahul Gandhi shared a tweet saying “Even teleprompter could not bear such lies”.
इतना झूठ Teleprompter भी नहीं झेल पाया।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 18, 2022
Other leaders also had a satirical take on the WEF incident. Some even recommend forming a commission to probe the international conspiracy behind technical glitch.
Meanwhile, it is yet unclear what caused the interruption in the Indian premier’s speech at the key summit.
