BENGALURU: Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi was a nervous man on Thursday. He had the task of translating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech into Kannada before the crowds in Tumakuru. Joshi, who had earned accolades for his translating abilities when he had done so earlier at an election rally in Gadag, did voice his apprehensions to the Prime Minister.
“When PM Modi told me to translate his bhashan, I was scared, and anxiously told him ‘mushkil hai’. He was calm and encouraged me, saying, ‘Daro math, kuch nahin hoga’,” Joshi told TNIE about the conversation between himself and Modi enroute the venue aboard a special chopper.
“I was scared to translate at first, considering PM Modi’s stature is very high. But he filled me with courage,’’ said Joshi, known to be one of Modi’s blue-eyed boys.
As Modi waxed on his favourite political topics at Siddaganga mutt, Joshi too broke into the rhythm. With oratory being more about body language than words, Joshi managed well as he had heard Modi hundreds of times, and knew the expressions too.
He translated Modi’s speech from Hindi to Kannada with elan, but a section of people who attended the event appeared to miss former Union minister HN Ananth Kumar, the original translator who they felt was a lot more fluent. Kumar was translator even for senior BJP leader LK Advani, while former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee’s translator was DH Shankara Murthy, former Council chairman.
The PM’s initial Kannada speech drew some negative comments, that the “Kannada accent” was lacking and so were certain vowels, but Joshi more than made up for it with his fluency in both Hindi and Kannada.