‘Gowda made Hindi speech, but didn’t know what he said’
BENGALURU: Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor took a jibe at former Prime Minister Deve Gowda for delivering an Independence Day speech in Hindi despite being unable to comprehend most of what he was saying.
In reference to the language controversy, he said, “When India celebrated its 49th Independence Day, our then Prime Minister Deve Gowda stood on the ramparts of Red Fort and made his speech in Hindi. Eight other prime ministers had done the same thing 48 times before him. What was unusual this time was that he spoke to the country in a language which he did not know a word of. Tradition and politics called for a speech in Hindi, so he gave one. A script of the speech was written in Kannada. A script, which of course, made no sense to him,” said Tharoor.He claimed that such an episode is almost impossible elsewhere.
Sunanda Pushkar case
Asked about the Sunanda Pushkar case, he said, “No one in this country could be more anxious than me to know the truth and to see a clear conclusion to this prolonged investigation.”