As the first Modi regime comes to a close, and before we find out if he shall return, it is time to look back at his most recent (and rather entertaining) gaffes.
Radar and cloud cover
The most recent on his long list of tall claims is where he advised the Indian Airforce to use rain and cloud cover to avoid radar detection. Though the BJP initially tweeted excitedly about Modi’s wisdom, following scathing criticism the tweet was deleted later. A video of the bizarre claim may be viewed here.
Digital camera and e-mail in 1988
In the same interview Modi made two more bizarre claims; first that he used a digital camera and second that he ‘transmitted’ an image captured on this camera in 1988 when neither technology was available to the common man in India at the time.
Narendra MODI Camera Lover: Credit: Indihumour
Sewer gas to make tea
In a speech addressing students at scientists at Vigyan Bhavan on World Bio Fuel Day in August 2018, the Prime Minister spoke about a tea seller using a pipe and an inverted utensil to capture fumes escaping from a gutter and then used it to make tea. While methane, the gas mostly emitted from drainage lines is indeed combustible, the process of harnessing it is rather complicated and cannot be done using the method described by the PM.
600 crore voters
Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos in January 2018, Modi claimed India had 600 crore voters. The figure shocked everyone, given how the total population of the country is just a little over 130 crores. The Prime Minister should at least know the approximate population of citizens of his country.
Modi at Davos: Credit Mikhail Metzel/Reuters
STREANH
This one is totally on Modi. While the original acronym of STRENGTH as per the Ministry of External Affairs was as follows:
‘S’ stands for Spirituality,
‘T’ stands for Tradition, Trade and Technology,
‘R’ for Relationship ,
‘E’ for Entertainment like Movies, Dance, Music and Art,
‘N’ stands for Nature ,
‘G’ for Games ,
‘T’ for Tourism and
‘H’ for Health and Healing and we can make all our plans with these alphabets.”
But Modi misspelled the word during delegation level talks with China in April 2018, and turned it into STREANH! A video of the gaffe may be viewed here: