PM Modi Gives Scripted Interviews, Alleges Rahul Gandhi After Translator's Gaffe

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of giving scripted interviews on public platforms.

Referring to Modi’s interview at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) last Friday, Gandhi wrote on Twitter: “The first Indian PM who takes "spontaneous" questions that the translator has pre-scripted answers to!”

The controversy erupted when after the Prime Minister responded to a question on addressing challenges faced by Asia, his English translator read out a lengthy passage from a piece of paper that included facts and figures not part of Modi's answer. This fuelled speculation that the queries posed to the Prime Minister, and his responses to them, were not impromptu but pre-planned.

Taking a jibe at Modi, Gandhi said: “Good that he doesn't take real questions. Would have been a real embarrassment to us all if he did.”

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor too had pointed out the apparent gaffe on Sunday. “Oh dear. When the translator says what the PM was supposed to say, but didn't,” Tharoor had tweeted.

This is not the first time Modi has faced flak for his public interactions. He was also criticised during his London trip in April where lyricist Prasoon Joshi ‘interviewed’ him before a live audience. Joshi’s questions had included “How does Modi manage to work such long hours” and “I detect a piety in you, were you always like that or you achieved this slowly and gradually”.