Yet another lost-in-translation moment for PM

There was yet another lost-in-translation moment for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kerala as his translator could not keep pace with him and wrongly translated the his Hindi speech into Malayalam at the Vizhinjam port inaugural function on Friday.

Pallipuram Jayakumar who was translating Mr. Modi’s speech a was unable to grasp the Prime Minister’s sarcastic remarks on the India Bloc.  In his speech, Mr. Modi said: “Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is a strong pillar of the India Bloc. Shashi Tharoor is also on the stage. This ceremony would make some quarters uncomfortable.”

However the the translator said: “We need to pay due attention to the issues related to our airlines and related matters.” Those on the stage along and the audience broke out in laughter on realising the gaffe.

Mr. Modi too realised it and said that though the translator got it wrong, the message had hit the right targets. Union Minister George Kurian, who was on stage, could be seen explaining to Mr. Vijayan on what had happened.

The Prime Minister took a dig at the India bloc deviating from the original speech which was handed over to the the translator by the Prime Minister’s Office in advance. And whenever the Mr. Modi deviated from his prepared text, the translator lost his footing.

Mr. Jayakumar, a teacher at Edavilakam School, has been translating the Prime Minister’s Mann Ki Baat into Malayalam for the past nine years. He was also the translator when Mr. Modi spoke at the Central Stadium in 2023.

However, Mr. Jayakumar told the media that the error was due to the inability to hear the speech accurately due to an audio problem on the stage.

In 2015, K. Surendran, former BJP State president, had also made similar gaffe when he wrongly translated Mr. Modi’s speech in Thrissur.