Ex-MP cites own special child to blast Modi for dyslexia joke

New Delhi: Comments by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a college student on persons with dyslexia on Saturday have triggered heated debate on social media.

On Sunday, former MP Shahid Siddiqui slammed Modi for the comments, which many interpreted as mocking persons with dyslexia. “This guy has no sensitivity or feeling for dyslexic people or differently abled people. He is worst then (sic) Trump. In any other part of the world, PM would have had to apologise to the nation,” Siddiqui first tweeted. Siddiqui was a Rajya Sabha member and is editor of the Nai Duniya Urdu weekly.

In a series of subsequent tweets, Siddiqui referred to the experience of his 30-year-old daughter Tania, a special needs person. Siddiqui tweeted, “My daughter Tania is a special person and I am proud of her, she is doing her best to coop (sic) with learning disabilities & I won’t allow anyone to look down upon her,however exalted that person may be. I fought for the rights of differently abled as a MP & continue to do so”.

In another tweet, Siddiqui wrote, “we have spent half our life caring for her but she has taught us compassion, love and care for all living creatures”.

Siddiqui referred to his interaction with the late Arjun Singh, who was human resource development minister in the first UPA government. “... as an MP, for the first time, I initiated an exclusive debate on special children in RS, in 2007, I forced HRD minister Arjun Singh to give 10% quota in ServaShikshaAbhiyan (sic) for these chldn (sic). Quota for them in Civil Services.”

When some Twitter users criticised Siddiqui for 'targeting' Modi, Siddiqui retorted, “it is to tell the PM the pain we all feel as parents and to make insensitive people like you aware of these children & to tell everyone don’t hide them, don’t be sorry, proudly talk about them& their issues. Joke was not on Rahul but Dyslexic people. He should apologise.”

On Saturday, Modi was interacting via videoconference with students for the Smart India Hackathon 2019 when a college student spoke to him about her work with children with dyslexia. As the student was describing the nature of her work, Modi cut her short and asked whether it would “help a 40-50-year-old-child too?” After a bout of laughter, the student replied in the affirmative, to which Modi quipped, “Then it would make the mothers of such children happy”. Critics of Modi claimed he was targeting Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia and hinting Rahul was a slow learner.

Several social media users, including medical professionals, criticised Modi's comments as being insensitive to persons with dyslexia. Atishi Marlena of the Aam Aadmi Party, who has been credited with improving performance of public schools in Delhi, attacked Modi. “Our abysmal infrastructure and capacity to care for children with special needs can be attributed to this: criminal insensitivity of the country's Prime Minister to special education. Shocking!” she tweeted.

(This story first appeared in The Week)