Rahul Gandhi tweets PM Modi's interviews 'are scripted'

During his recently-concluded tri-nation tour of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave an interview at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, wherein he replied to the queries in Hindi.

He was interviewed by NTU President Subra Suresh who also took questions from members of the audience. However, the PM's responses were being translated simultaneously in English.

After PM Modi answered a series of questions regarding the challenges faced by Asia, the English translator started reading out a lengthy response which included facts that were not mentioned by the PM in his response.

This led to speculation that the questions posed to Modi, and his responses, were not spontaneous, but a part of a pre-planned script. On June 04, Rahul Gandhi pointed this out on Twitter and took a dig at the Prime Minister accusing him of giving scripted interviews on public platforms.

In his tweet, Gandhi said: ‘The first Indian PM who takes "spontaneous" questions that the translator has pre-scripted answers to! Good that he doesn't take real questions. Would have been a real embarrassment to us all if he did.’

The first Indian PM who takes "spontaneous" questions that the translator has pre-scripted answers to! Good that he doesn't take real questions. Would have been a real embarrassment to us all if he did. pic.twitter.com/8Iyfgiaseh

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 4, 2018

He tagged a video of the question wherein Modi’s answer was much shorter than the translator's.

Further, while tagging a news report on NTU, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also tweeted: "Oh dear. When the translator says what the PM was supposed to say, but didn't."

This is not the first time PM Modi has been criticised for his public interviews. In April, he was interviewed by lyricist Prasoon Joshi before a live audience where it was alleged that Joshi asked pre-scripted questions.