Prime Minister Narendra Modi is heading back to India as his three-nation tour to France, Germany and Canada that began on April 9 comes to an end. In France, he signed a deal to buy fighter planes. In Germany, he urged business people to Make in India. In Canada, he secured an agreement to buy uranium fuel for India's nuclear plants. As is now the standard practice, several controversies were stirred up – not all of them real or of his making.

The squalls began even as Modi set out for France, when the leading French newspaper Le Monde said that they had refused to run an interview with him. The paper explained that they were told that they would not be able to interact with Modi but would have to publish written answers.

More questionable moments followed.

Indian architects and fetus

According to ANI, Modi made this statement in Germany.

This started a debate among social media users. One Twitter user took a screenshot of a book showing that ancient Indian texts from the sixth century BC had details of human embryology.

Twitter users kept coming up with suggestions for more texts to support this contention: Life in the Womb: Conception and Gestation in Buddhist Scripture and Classical Indian Medical Literature, Lord Kapila’s Instructions on the Movements of the Living Entities and Vedic Hindu Science on Development of Embryo to Fetus to Baby.

Then someone tweeted a picture.

Despite all the evidence on display on Twitter, no one was able to firmly establish the source of Modi's assertion.

Modi's awkward non-handshake

At the Hannover Fair, Modi, after finishing a speech, walked up to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to shake her hand. Astonishingly, according to this video, she ignored his gesture.



As so often, the video did  not tell the whole story. Merkel wanted to shake Modi's hand in the middle of the stage, which is what they proceed to do.

Barking up the wrong tree

On April 14, ANI News tweeted a picture of another tweet claiming it was a photoshopped picture.



The dubious post came to light when Aam Aadmi Party social media head Ankit Lal tweeted it.  ANI News promptly replied saying it wasn't true and that Modi hadn't said any such thing. They claimed that Lal himself had created it. He denied it but attacks by Bhartiya Janta Party supporters on him are still continuing.

ANI News, on their part, have filed a First Information Report with the Economic Offences Wing and Cyber Cell of Delhi Police on April 14.

Counting colours

Modi stirred up a controversy in Canada when he claimed that the Indian flag has four colours and not three. Saffron, white, green and blue.

Technically, Modi was right. Though the Indian flag is referred to as the tri-colour, it has a blue chakra in the middle,

First PM to visit Canada

"It is a historic milestone in our bilateral ties as in 42 years, this is the first standalone bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister," said External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin shortly after Modi arrived in Canada.

Congress Leader Shashi Tharoor, refuted this statement.

As it turns out, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Canada in 2010 for the G20 Summit. Tharoor backed up his claims by including a link to a joint statement by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

While Manmohan Singh visited Canada before Modi, the difference is that Modi's was a bilateral, while Singh was there primarily for the Summit.

2ab


It's a simple math problem which Modi has gotten wrong. (a + b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2


(Picture credit: FreshSite.com)