Prime Minister Narendra Modi has courted controversy with his ‘insensitive remarks’ on dyslexia. While speaking at an event, PM Modi made a covert jibe at his political opponent Rahul Gandhi, but in turn ended up making fun of people with dyslexia.
During an interaction, a student talked about her idea of helping students with Dyslexia, to which Modi responded,
Will this work for a 40-50 year-old child too?
And when the student answered with a yes, he went on to add,
Then that will make the mothers of such children very happy.
His obvious jibe at Rahul Gandhi, however, has not gone down well with Netizens, who criticised Modi’s insensitive comments.
Modi mocks Dyslexia!
— Roshan Rai (@RoshanKrRai) March 3, 2019
( The above quoted video got deleted so reuploading ) pic.twitter.com/f1AxR7Z5BK
People on Twitter called out the Prime Minister for mocking the condition.
He has caused irreparable damage to the office of PM. He makes fun of dyslexic children and their mothers and then laughs at his own crude joke @JantaKaReporter https://t.co/TMSW9VY82t
— Rifat Jawaid (@RifatJawaid) March 3, 2019
Why education is important to some extent
— Navdeep Soni (@navdeepsoni) March 3, 2019
There were also professionals who felt the need to school our leader on the learning disability.
Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disorders that affects 3-7% people, (traits in upto 17-20%). It is genetic (heritable) that affects reading, writing & hence learning skills but not a marker for intelligence. Poor judgement by the PM to mock a neurological condition pic.twitter.com/lJczhocUYV
— Dr. Sumaiya Shaikh (@Neurophysik) March 3, 2019
Equally disturbing is the reaction from the audience including the young woman asking the question. Bollywood and Indian pop culture have mainstreamed this kind of humour.Apart from a few of us who care, this kind of distasteful humour likely resonates more widely than we imagine
— Rupa Subramanya (@rupasubramanya) March 3, 2019
Perhaps people in India associate #dyslexia with mental slowness or some kind of intelligence deficit when it’s nothing of the sort. To those who are enjoying the slur, a warning: it can happen to any child of any social class, religion, ethnicity.
— Lotos eater (@sabathenomad) March 3, 2019
How sad that we have someone without proper education as our PM; he lacks not only in empathy but also in baic mannerism. Worse still that there are yong people who clap on this sort of a comment. Hope that Indian voters choose carefully in 2019!
— Dr.S. P. Singh MD (@medico956) March 3, 2019
What is surprising is that it resonated with the audience. Imagine if the audience didn’t comprehend it in the way the PM had expected, it would have been a befitting response to him.
— ramanpreet shergill (@ShergillRaman) March 4, 2019
Given the kind and amount of knowledge Indian PM has the dyslexic community as whole should be proud that they can, with proof, say they are better than and above this spineless hypocrite in every aspect of their lives.
— Mir Danish (میر دانش) (@MirDanish0211) March 4, 2019
@PMOIndia What you did there wasn't right. Prob got distracted thinking of Rahul Gandhi but dyslexia can affect a child's potential
— Anjana Warrier (@warrier_anjana) March 3, 2019
BTW Einstein, Steve Jobbs were dyslexic. So don't laugh about dyslexics
Sir please make amends.
It’s not poor judgement dear. It was deliberate. He really doesn’t know how to speak the language of a leader. Worst is that he’s reluctant to learn. Bad on job trainee @narendramodi
— sk (@sanu_kar) March 4, 2019
Yeah, he has that talent of cornering people when he doesn’t know how to answer a question.
— Kakurala (@kakurala) March 3, 2019
