Following the technical glitch during the World Economic Forum address on January 17, Congress trolls, friendly journalists and other assorted politicians including Rahul Gandhi himself raised the ‘teleprompter’ bogey to take a dig at PM Modi. The address was virtual and through video link and hence for a brief moment when PM Modi was coordinating with backend tech team for live streaming, it was peddled as ‘teleprompter malfunction’.
Which in itself would not be an issue. Teleprompter is a useful device which politicians and leaders across the world use for public address. PM Modi, himself, too has used it on some occasions. However, majority of PM Modi’s speeches and addresses are without any script which is what makes him a great orator. Which is why, for the brief technical glitch, the trolls assembled to mock him in a bid to embarrass him on an international platform.
Which is quite rich coming from someone who himself holds some sort of record when it comes to embarrassing goof ups. Here are some of the instances of the second hand embarrassment unleashed upon us.
When Rahul Gandhi was caught on camera copying condolence note from his mobile
In 2015, when Rahul Gandhi went to the Nepal embassy to express solidarity with the earthquake victims, he was caught on camera copying a condolence note from his phone.
When the Congress vice president was writing a message in the embassy’s visitors book, he was caught copying text from his Blackberry phone. Rahul had also pressed a button once on the mobile to switch on its back-light to read the text again. This video was widely circulated on social media leaving the Gandhi scion red-faced.
‘Bhrashtachar ya balatkaar’?
Rahul Gandhi had to face a massive embarrassment after he mixed up two Hindi words while addressing a women’s rally in Madhya Pradesh as he referred to the increasing number of violence against women in the BJP-ruled Indian state.
In the major goof-up, Congress scion Rahul Gandhi said ‘bhrashtachar’ (corruption) in place of ‘balatkaar’ (rape) at an election rally at Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh (MP), India.
Rahul Gandhi’s blunder in Gujarat
Rahul Gandhi’s weird theories about milk production in Gujarat in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections are among the most embarrassing bloopers of his political career.
Addressing a rally in Gujarat, the Gandhi-scion actually intended to praise the Gujarati women for their entrepreneurial spirit, however, ended up making awkward comments against the Gujarati women.
“If Gujarat is leading in the production of milk in the country then it’s because of the women of Gujarat,” said Rahul Gandhi in his speech without even realising that blunder he had committed.
Rahul finds it tough to pronounce the name of Bharat Ratna Sir M Vishweshwaraiah
One of the most bizarre public rallies of Rahul Gandhi occurred in Karnataka in the run-up to state elections in 2018. Rahul speaking at an election rally in Karnataka struggled to pronounce M Visvesvaraya, a Bharat Ratna recipient.
In another rally in the run-up to Karnataka elections, Rahul Gandhi had also struggled to read out a ‘vachana’ or couplet written by 12th-century statesman, philosopher, poet Basavanna.
Rahul Gandhi’s Fisheries Ministry gaffe
Rahul Gandhi once again sounded completely disoriented during an interaction with the fishing community in Kerala’s Kollam last year where he claimed that there is no dedicated ministry to address the problems of fishermen. He promised of forming a Central ministry dedicated to fishermen of India.
Union Minister Giriraj Singh, however, quickly rebutted the Congress leader’s remarks taking a jab at Gandhi’s ignorance and attempt to “spread misinformation.”
“Rahul Gandhi is unaware that a separate ministry for fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying was formed by the Prime Minister in 2019, adding that Gandhi can’t come out of Italy,” Singh had said.
Indian youth is dreaming of ‘berozgari’
The senior Congress leader was in Jaipur, Rajasthan on January 28, 2020 to launch a ‘serious’ campaign to tap so-called ‘youth anger’ against the central government in wake of CAA and NRC and the so-called highhandedness in dealing with student protests in university campuses particularly in JNU, Jamia Milia Islamia and AMU.
Addressing the youth of the country at the ‘Akrosh Rally’ in Jaipur, Rajasthan, the prince of goof-ups, merely 2.04 minutes into his power-packed speech, said: “Hindustan ka yuva berojgaari ke sapne dekhta hai” roughly translated as “The youth of the country dreams of unemployment”, while inadvertently also admitting that the Modi government is breaking the dreams of the youth.
People are left to wonder here whether he actually intended to speak against the Modi government or in their favour?
‘Lord Shiva had swallowed the entire universe’: Janeu-Dhari Rahul Gandhi misquotes Hindu scriptures
While addressing the party workers through video conferencing today on the occasion of the launch of Congress party’s digital campaign Jan Jagran Abhiyan in November last year, the Kerala MP made a goof-up in his address, as he distorted a well-known story from Puranas regarding Lord Shiva.
Giving an analogy from Hindu mythology, Rahul Gandhi said that Lord Shiva had swallowed the entire universe. However, Rahul Gandhi massively misquoted Hindu scriptures when he claimed that Shiva had swallowed the universe. Because Lord Shiva had swallowed poison with the potential to destroy the entire universe, he didn’t swallow the entire universe. Shiva drinking poison is one of the most well-known stories from Hindu texts, and it is ironic that janeu-dhari Rahul Gandhi misquoted such a well-known story.
Besides his innumerable gaffes during speeches, Rahul Gandhi is also famous for his goof ups on Twitter. From posting a wrong Indian map to goofing up while wishing our jawans on Army Day, Rahul Gandhi has never shied away from providing his fans with comic relief, bringing laughter and joy into the long series of incessant lies and baseless accusations, most of which, interestingly, also come from himself.
While Rahul Gandhi’s gaffes seem to be endless, let’s have a look at some of the other senior Congress leaders’ gaffes.
Sonia Gandhis mispronunciation
In her speech at the 84th Congress Plenary Session in 2018, the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi ended up mispronouncing a word to make it sound like ‘balatkar’ (rape).
In a viral video clip, Sonia Gandhi could be heard saying “40 varsh pehle, Chikmangalur mein Indira ji ki shaandar jeet ne desh ki rajniti ko <something sounds very much like balatkar> rakh diya”.
While some self proclaimed fact-checkers at that time claimed she said ‘palat kar’ (changed), the jury is still out on this one.
When Sonia Gandhi went on to inadvertently expose UPA government’s incompetence
In 2016, Sonia Gandhi made a major blunder while addressing a gathering of Andhra Pradesh Congress worker in the national capital. Sonia Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government for not fulfilling the promise made to the people of the state.
Instead of claiming the NDA government hasn’t done anything, she stated the UPA government has made “no effort at all,” and she did so while reading a prepared speech.
“Almost two years have passed, we have seen nothing, no effort from ‘UPA Govt’ said Sonia Gandhi in a speech that would surely continue to remain a major embarrassment for her and all party members.
Priyanka Gandhi’s Twitter gaffe over condolence Tweet on Sitaram Yechury’s son’s demise
In a tragic turn of events, senior Left leader Sitaram Yechury’s son Ashish Yechury died of COVID-19 on 22 April 2021. In much embarrassment for the Congress party, its general secretary Priyanka Gandhi made repeated mistakes in her Twitter posts condoling the demise of Sitaram Yechury’s son.
It took Priyanka Gandhi three attempts to finally post a condolence Tweet.
In her first tweet posted around 10.34 am, Gandhi wrote ‘Sitaram Kesari’ instead of ‘Sitaram Yechury’.
Sitaram Kesari is a former Congress president who passed away in 2000 at the age of 80.
Gandhi deleted her tweet and re-posted it after users pointed out the error. Her post this time included the words “please tweet” before the condolence message, indicating that she had ineptly copied and pasted the full message sent to her by her social media team.
After users trolled her for this mistake too, Gandhi once again deleted the post. Finally, she tweeted out the correct post, which continues to show on her timeline.
When Manmohan Singh’s “Theek Hain” didn’t go down well with social media users
In 2012, during his address to the country on the Delhi gang rape incident, then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s interrogative ‘theek hai’ statement was erroneously broadcast on television, drawing significant backlash on social media.
This remark saw a new surge of anger cascading online. On that day, most of the trending topics on Twitter were on the Congress veteran leader’s gaffe. #theekhai, #meekhai, #bheekhai, as well as Manmohan, were some top trending hashtags. In fact, #theekhai had trended worldwide.
Congress era’s external affairs minister SM Krishna’s gaffe at UNSC
In 2011, Congress leader and the then External Affairs Minister SM Krishna was caught in an embarrassing faux pas at the United Nations Security Council meeting in New York when he inadvertently read from out a part of a Portuguese Minister’s speech.
Speaking at the UNSC at a debate on security and development on Friday, Krishna read out the speech of Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado for about three minutes before being corrected by India’s envoy to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri, causing major embarrassment for the party.
Priyanka ‘Chopra’ Zindabad
In 2019, the former Congress MLA Surender Kumar made a huge blunder during a public rally by mistakenly stating “Priyanka Chopra Zindabaad” instead of cheering for party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
The video of the rally has gone viral on social media since, wherein the three-time MLA from Bawana can be heard saying “Sonia Gandhi Zindabad, Congress Party Zindabad, Rahul Gandhi Zindabad, Priyanka Chopra Zindabad.”
The list of gaffes committed by Rahul Gandhi and his teammates is endless. Whatever is said and done, Congress leaders have never failed to regale their audience and listeners with their unintended humour.
