Sometimes, there’s a flip side to being a rockstar Prime Minister, every move you make the world’s watching you.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Russia for a two-day visit on Wednesday. The visit is aimed at strengthening the somewhat strained relations between both the countries. But even before the PM could get out of the airport he made a faux pas that has his detractors on social media excited. Modi accidentally began walking while the India’s national anthem was playing.
The Prime Minister started walking almost at the same time as band started playing the Indian anthem. An official immediately pulled the PM back to his spot so that the tune could finish.
Modi seemed to have been responding to the gesture of a Russian dignitary, which the PM probably interpreted as a prompt to start walking. The gesture was in fact a cue for the Russian military band to start playing the Indian national anthem.
This minor gaffe seems to have provided fuel for a host of puns and quirky tweets and some have gone so far as to call it an insult, with the hashtags #ModiInsultsNationalAnthem, #modiinsultsindia doing the rounds.
There are even twitter polls doing the rounds.
It is likely, of course, that the PM will manage to put this minor breach in protocol behind him, and get down to some serious diplomacy.
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