When you can’t find any fault in someone, you get into nitpicking – you may look at his shoelaces to find a fault. Off late I have observed people ‘criticizing’ PM Modi for using a teleprompter for his speeches. They say he uses it for several of his speeches. Recently when PM Modi delivered a brilliant speech giving such details of Baba Mahakal and the history of Ujjain, which was music to the ears of all Hindus across the world while inaugurating a ‘mandir’ at Ujjain, a local Hindi newspaper in Indore on 12 October said that he was ‘accused’ by the opposition of using a teleprompter! What an accusation. The alleged user of the teleprompter; as if it is a crime.
Let me set the record straight, this is a technology used the world over by political leaders and even professional speakers. I have been a professional speaker myself for over two decades, I don’t use a teleprompter as I don’t have one and I am more comfortable with my notes on the lectern. One could watch a spectacular long speech on Republic TV delivered by Shri Gurumurthi who had his notes on his lectern. The art is to use any of these methods/devices smartly, and affectively to deliver your lecture impact fully- from your heart and reach out to your audience- to each his own.
Barack Obama is a brilliant speaker and has perfected the art of using a teleprompter. Most US presidents use it. So what is the big deal? Before Obama, Bush was the President and after him, it was Donald Trump, they sure had Teleprompters but were they or could they be as impressive an orator as Obama? No, not at all.
Did you know Marlon Brando used a script written on paper and pasted it to his clothes while shooting for Godfather? Yet you feel he is doing a crutchless brilliant performance. Winston Churchill was the greatest speaker of his time and used handwritten notes wherever he spoke.
A different look- It is in every field
Let me put this differently. Major Dhyan Chand was a Hockey wizard- and not his hockey stick. As stories go, people thought he had a magnet sort of thing in his Hockey stick! Impressed by Dhyan Chand’s skill, the British press called him a ‘hockey wizard’ and a ‘human eel’. Legend has it that the Queen told Dhyan Chand to play with her umbrella using the handle as a stick, and he still scored goals.
Ok, let me turn the argument on its head. If I gave you the same typewriter or a computer used by Douglas Stuart the winner of the booker prize for his debut novel Shuggie Bain will you be able to churn out a booker prize worthy novel? Can you produce a Harry Potter with the instruments used by J.K. Rowling? If I give you the most expensive Ping golf set will you be able to beat Tiger Woods at a golf tournament? I give you the best oil paints, will you be able to draw as well as Pablo Picasso? The best parker pen and the most expensive one cannot improve your handwriting!
If you had watched some western movies there is a guy who is called the fastest draw. By the way, Bob Munden was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as “The Fastest Man with a Gun Who Ever Lived”. One journalist reckoned that if Munden had been at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, on October 26, 1881, the gunfight would have been over in 5 to 10 seconds.
In a formula race the car is important but the man on the steering lifts the trophy.
My personal experience with enigma called Shri Narendra Modi
I had the privilege of receiving him in my MBA institute at Symbiosis University when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. At that time I had known very little about him.
He came, he spoke and he conquered. As we ushered him to the stage, he was calm and composed and our students in the audience were not expecting a five-star oratory treat that they were about to taste, including me. Since it was our stage, our auditorium I can say very clearly that there was no teleprompter. He didn’t have even a shred of paper in his hand or which he pulled out of his pocket.
He spoke for a pretty long time (I don’t remember the exact length of his talk) – but it was from his heart, emotional and convincing. He had facts and figures on his fingertips- not a word here or there, not a stutter, absolutely flawless well-articulated to the point a mesmerizing speech was like a brilliant performance. I have been a speaker myself and have heard great orators in the past- but no one could match up or come even close to his style and substance.
I was commissioned by Rupa publishers to write a book on the oratory skills of PM Modi titled (Speaking the Modi Way, now in Hindi too) and during my research, I must have heard and written down hundreds of his speeches in a notebook to get the content right and that is the time I realized the depth, commitment and knowledge of this man who is nothing short of a national asset today.
