New Delhi: A break in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special address by video conference to the World Economic Forum’s online Davos Agenda 2022 summit had social media divided with some ruling that it was a teleprompter failure – and tweeting with the hashtag #teleprompterPM – while others deliberated on what may have caused it.
A few minutes into the prime minister’s speech – which was being translated live from Hindi to English for the audience in Davos – Modi looks to his left, speaks a few words more and then stops speaking and looks left again. A member of his staff prompts him in Hindi to ask the Davos audience if they can hear him. He then looks straight into the camera, raises his arms as he usually does while speaking and attempts to say something but does not say a word. In all, he was silent for 10 seconds, an eternity in public speaking. Looking flustered, he then connects an earphone, mangles Klaus Schwab’s name and asks (in what appears to be somewhat ungrammatical Hindi) whether he is audible: ‘klaussubsirsur sab kuch suna aa raha hai?”. (Watch from 4’17”)
WEF’s executive chairman Klaus Schwab answers that he can hear Modi clearly. Modi then asks if his interpreter can be heard – an unusual question given that Schwab could only have replied on the basis of what the interpreter had said. Aware that some snafu had occurred at Modi’s end, Schwab then appears to ad lib, saying, “I hear you very well and I would suggest we start the official session now”. He then proceeds to introduce Modi again, following which Modi begins the speech anew.
So what happened? Was it a teleprompter fail – that moment politician orators dread because it cuts them off midstream and leaves them, quite literally, speechless? Did Modi sense trouble with the teleprompter in front of him and begin looking at his staff on the left to try and find out what was happening? Or was the staff trying to grab his attention because there was a glitch, or perceived glitch at the Davos end? If it is the latter, as some have suggested, this begs another question: If Modi’s staff really really had doubts about whether the PM was audible in Davos, did they have no other technical means of finding out except to take the highly unusual step of asking Modi to stop speaking mid-sentence and check with Schwab? Was the request that Modi himself check with Schwab an attempt to buy time while they sorted things out at their end? Only the PMO knows.
Teleprompter snafus at that level are not uncommon. In 2009, the Irish prime minister read US President Barack Obama’s speech from the teleprompter. And Modi himself in 2015 had addressed the wife of the then Sri Lankan president as M.R.S. Sirisena.
Whatever the truth of Monday’s glitch, several on Twitter, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, were quick to make associations between a possible teleprompter failure and the prime minister’s purported inability to continue speaking.
“Even the teleprompter was not able to say so many lies,” Gandhi wrote in Hindi.
इतना झूठ Teleprompter भी नहीं झेल पाया।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 18, 2022
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Modi’s oratory is often highlighted as exemplary by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which became another rallying point for several on Twitter.
Great PROMPTORATOR , Unplugged 🤣#TeleprompterPM pic.twitter.com/VvXSgJzs4w
— Vinay Kumar Dokania (@VinayDokania) January 18, 2022
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.@RahulGandhi has been proved right, once again. #TeleprompterPM pic.twitter.com/UHW9HUKWyx
— Ruchira Chaturvedi (@RuchiraC) January 17, 2022
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Seems some poor technicians in the PMO will lose their job today. Just hope they aren’t charged with sedition/UAPA and what not. Noida media must be on standby to take out some Khalistani link to the embarrassment today!
— Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) January 17, 2022
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Worst nightmare of @narendramodi #TELEPROMPTER FAILURE 🥶 #TeleprompterPM pic.twitter.com/Ue3vNMIPT0
— இசை (@isai_) January 18, 2022
Jokes apart, but the person holding topmost chair in the country, couldn’t even utter a single word as soon as the #Teleprompter went off. This is when oratory skills were considered his biggest forte.
Goes on to show how the whole country was fooled.#TeleprompterPM pic.twitter.com/CUvHeUaQUN
— Mayank Saxena (@mayank_sxn) January 17, 2022
Some held the view that Modi could not have spoken beyond what the teleprompter held, even if we wanted to, because the speech was being translated live and had to stick to a script.
Fact-checking portal Alt News‘s Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair tweeted that it was unlikely to have been a failure of the teleprompter but that someone in the Prime Minister’s Office was attempting to catch his eye. This, they wrote, was evident from the World Economic Forum’s video of the speech.
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.
1/n pic.twitter.com/wkBnLom083
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) January 17, 2022
“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,” Sinha wrote.
Here is WEF version of PM Modi's speech, someone in the background says, "Sir aap unse ek baar poochen, ki sab jud gaye kya?".
Doesn't look like it's teleprompter issue. Later in his 20 min speech, He doesn't look sideways. TP could be at the front.pic.twitter.com/zVUqhEU5rH— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) January 17, 2022
So much being made out of what is at best a little interruption. You can clearly hear someone ask Modi at 9:24 to check if the audience has joined in, there's a bit of back and forth and then the speech begins. How is this a teleprompter fail? https://t.co/oEMXiKg7K1
— Manisha Pande (@MnshaP) January 18, 2022
However, Mohammed Zubair also pointed out that several rightwing and BJP accounts had copy-pasted the same tweet text to rally by the prime minister’s side.
Instead of asking verified handles to copy paste tweet, They should have asked their IT cell to dig out video and shared the video with explanation. 🙆🏾♂️ pic.twitter.com/6w3R6eLHHc
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) January 17, 2022
Sinha’s take on the issue also received some criticism.
With respect, affection and admiration for Pratik, what he’s sharing here is a possible theory not a ‘fact check’. He’s guessing. https://t.co/jZAVFP4dNv
— Dushyant (@atti_cus) January 18, 2022
