Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the glitch during his address at the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda, which caused the Prime Minister to pause and restart his speech. 

“Even the teleprompter could not take so much lies,” Gandhi wrote in a tweet in Hindi, taking a swipe at the Prime Minister without naming him. 

There has been no official reaction from the government or the WEF on the incident.

Also Read | India fighting COVID while maintaining economic growth: PM Modi at World Economic Forum

Several Congress leaders and social media users claimed that it was a “teleprompter gaffe”, but BJP leaders and many others pointed out that it was a technical glitch due to which the WEF people were not able to patch the PM and requested him to start again.

Fact-checking website Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha said it is unlikely that the prime minister had a teleprompter gaffe. “If you look at the WEF version of the recording of his speech, someone in the background says, ‘Sir, aap unse ek baar pooche ki sab jud gaye kya’ (Sir, ask them once if everyone is connected). This portion is not clear in the video live-streamed on PM’s YouTube channel.” 

Also Read | Highlights: PM Modi’s ‘bouquet of hope’ speech at World Economic Forum

“After this, the PM questions if he and the interpreter can be heard properly, to which (WEF executive chairman) Klaus Schwab responds stating that he can.”

“However, Schwab interrupts the PM’s speech to give a brief introduction. The PM repeats the whole speech again,” Sinha said, recounting the events from Monday evening during the prime minister’s address.

However, several Congress leaders took a dig at the prime minister over the incident.

Also Read | UP Assembly election 2022: PM Modi interacts with BJP workers, urges for ‘chemical free farming’

Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, “Teleprompter se bhashan chal sakta hai, shasan nahin. Kal ye poore desh ki samajh mein aa gaya (You can give a speech but not rule using a teleprompter. The whole country understood this yesterday).

The Congress, on its official Twitter handle, shared the video of the prime minister taking a pause in his speech, calling him the “teleprompter guy”.

Youth Congress tweeted, “Failed to address after teleprompter stopped working, PM Modi failed to represent the country on World Economic Forum