Rahul Gandhi said PM Modi's response to real questions would have been an "embarrassment for all"
Highlights
- Rahul Gandhi tweets video of PM Modi from event in Singapore
- In video, PM Modi took a question, answered in Hindi
- His translator then read out a longer answer with more details and data
Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of giving scripted interviews, claiming his response to real questions would have been an "embarrassment for all".
"The first Indian Prime Minister who takes 'spontaneous' questions that the translator has pre-scripted answers to," the Congress president tweeted.
"Good that he doesn't take real questions... Would have been a real embarrassment for us all if he did," he scoffed, attaching a video where the translator is heard purportedly reading out a scripted answer.
The video that he posted was reportedly that of a Q and A session that the Prime Minister addressed at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University last Friday.
The Prime Minister was responding to a question on challenges faced by Asia. After he finished speaking, his English translator read out an answer that was far longer and included details and data that were not in PM Modi's answer.
PM Modi's critics seized on the video, calling it proof that questions to the PM and his responses to them were never spontaneous but were planned and scripted.
Rahul Gandhi has often accused PM Modi of dodging answers to "real questions" he and other opposition leaders have asked.