In 2009, the Irish prime minister read US President Barack Obama’s speech from the teleprompter. Teleprompter snafus at that level are not uncommon. So what happened? Was it a teleprompter fail – that moment politician orators dread because it cuts them off midstream and leaves them, quite literally, speechless? Did Modi sense trouble with the teleprompter in front of him and begin looking at his staff on the left to try and find out what was happening? Or was the staff trying to grab his attention because there was a glitch, or perceived glitch at the Davos end? If it is the latter, as some have suggested, this begs another question: If Modi’s staff really really had doubts about whether the PM was audible in Davos, did they have no other technical means of finding out except to take the highly unusual step of asking Modi to stop speaking mid-sentence and check with Schwab? Was the request that Modi himself check with Schwab an attempt to buy time while they sorted things out at their end? Only the PMO knows. He then proceeds to introduce Modi again, following which Modi begins the speech anew. Aware that some snafu had occurred at Modi’s end, Schwab then appears to ad lib, saying, “I hear you very well and I would suggest we start the official session now”. Modi then asks if his interpreter can be heard – an unusual question given that Schwab could only have replied on the basis of what the interpreter had said. WEF’s executive chairman Klaus Schwab answers that he can hear Modi clearly. Looking flustered, he then connects an earphone, mangles Klaus Schwab’s name and asks (in what appears to be somewhat ungrammatical Hindi) whether he is audible: ‘klaussubsirsur sab kuch suna aa raha hai?”. In all, he was silent for 10 seconds, an eternity in public speaking. He then looks straight into the camera, raises his arms as he usually does while speaking and attempts to say something but does not say a word.

A member of his staff prompts him in Hindi to ask the Davos audience if they can hear him. New Delhi: A break in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special address by video conference to the World Economic Forum’s online Davos Agenda 2022 summit had social media divided with some ruling that it was a teleprompter failure – and tweeting with the hashtag #teleprompterPM – while others deliberated on what may have caused it.Ī few minutes into the prime minister’s speech – which was being translated live from Hindi to English for the audience in Davos – Modi looks to his left, speaks a few words more and then stops speaking and looks left again.

Teleprompter meaning