Narendra Modi pulled a punch, but lost in translation

Palakkad: Translating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindi speech is not an easy job and the BJP leaders in Kerala know it well. The fire brand leader of the party K Surendran had a tough time translating Mr Modi’s speech at a party’s public meeting in Thrissur last year.

As he completely goofed-up on the first two sentences, then BJP president V Muraleedharan took over the job and did it well. Though the prime minister started his speech referring to party national executive member George Kurian as someone who regularly translated his speeches, Mr Kurian failed to convey certain points to the audience with the same effect Mr Modi created in Hindi.

When Modi said people of Kerala were highly educated but innocent (‘bhole’) to realise the ‘deal politics’ between LDF and UDF, Mr Kurian could not pick up that up. When Mr Modi went on to add that the LDF and the UDF are engaged in a game in the Kerala Assembly without an ‘umpire’ to control it, Mr Kurian failed to come up with matching translation.

Again he looked lost when Mr Modi taunted the solar-tainted UDF saying ‘solar’ (boats in Hindi) changed the lives of fishermen in Banaras, the ‘word’ created the effect of a bomb in Kerala.