Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited severe criticism after taking a covert jibe at Congress President Rahul Gandhi with an insensitive joke about people with dyslexia.
The prime minister on Saturday evening addressed engineering students via video conference at the Smart India Hackathon 2019. During his interaction, a student was talking about her idea of helping students with dyslexia when Modi interrupted her to ask if it would benefit people between 40 and 50.
Dyslexia is a learning difficulty which can cause trouble with reading, writing, and spelling. It is not a marker of intelligence or creativity.
In the video that is now viral on social media, the student who asked the question looked taken aback by Modi’s remark. When she attempted to continue, Modi cut her short again, saying that the news would bring happiness to the mothers of such people. Modi’s obvious target was his political opponent Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi.
Modi’s comments mocking dyslexia were heavily criticised on twitter.
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