New Delhi: The National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled has demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his dyslexia-related jibe at an interactive session with students.
The Prime Minister was interacting via video conference during the finals of the Smart India Hackathon on Saturday when a BTech student from Uttarakhand began talking of her project on people with dyslexia, a learning disability.
“Our idea is based on dyslexic people,” the girl said. “Dyslexic children are those whose learning and writing pace is very slow. But their intelligence and creativity levels are quite high.” At this point, the Prime Minister is shown in video recordings of the event as interrupting her to say: “Could this idea help any 40 or 50-year-old child?”
The Prime Minister himself broke into a chuckle and many in the audience laughed and clapped before the student replied: “Yes, sir, it will.”
“The mother of such children would become very happy,” Modi further said.
But his comments did not go down well. Many interpreted the comments as a dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi.
“The Prime Minister tried to portray dyslexic people in poor light. It is all the more unpardonable as it comes from a person holding such a high office,” the NPRD said in a statement on Sunday.
A group of Congress leaders, including former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, wrote to the President saying Prime Minister Modi must be cautioned against using “unwarranted, threatening and intimidating language” that is unbecoming for the country’s top post.
“It is unthinkable that in our democratic polity, the Prime Minister as head of the government would utter words which are threatening, intimidating in content and a public warning to the leaders of the main opposition party, the Congress,” said the letter to President Ram Nath Kovind.
Many users also took to Twitter to register their outrage.
“Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Lee Kuan Yew, Alexander Graham Bell, Tom Cruise and many great men & women were all believed to be dyslexic & look what they made of their lives. Mocking differently abled people marks a new low in our political discourse.#Dyslexia” tweeted Sumanth Raman.
“Making fun of Dyslexia to target political opponent. There is no low which is too Low for Narendra Modi. Worse are the students who were clapping but cant blame them. When the PM of the Nation is such a Cheap Man, they had to entertain him,” tweeted @Joydas.
“A 68 year old man who spelled it STREANH on an international platform just joked about #Dyslexia,” tweeted Dharmapada (@how_do_u_cross).
