Also watch videos of PM Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh’s speeches, and translations.
By Dileep Thekkethil
When Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Kerala State General Secretary K Surendran abruptly stopped translating Narendra Modi’s speech to Malayalam after failing to comprehend the Prime Minister’s Hindi, he was made the butt of all jokes by media and rival parties. Now, it seems like there are more translators in Kerala who want to embarrass leaders by goofing up their speech.
The election campaign in Kerala is in full swing with many top leaders, including Modi and Congress President Sonia Gandhi flying down to ‘God’s Own Country’ to woo prospective voters. Even though some leaders come armed with a few Malayalam words to impress the audience, mostly they need translators during speech.
When Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat and Union Minister of Urban Development of India Venkaiah Naidu started their respective speech, they never thought that it will end up as a comedy of errors. The video is at the end of this story.
Brinda Karat reached the district of Wayanad with the intention to give an eloquent speech ahead of the May 16 assembly elections, but the senior CPI (M) leader was given a tough time by her translator whose interpretation of her speech left some in the audience puzzled. Sensing mistake in the translation, Karat herself tried to correct her translator, thanks to the little Malayalam that she has learned from her Malayali husband and CPI (M)’s former Secretary, Prakash Karat.
In one instance, Brinda Karat asks the translator to come a little closer hoping that he could better hear her and the “translation might be good” afterward. But what followed made the audience feel for the poor translator who didn’t even know Tapan Kumar Sen, the Member of Parliament of CPI (M) from West Bengal, one among the only 9 MP of the party.
In the second incident, BJP leader and Union Minister of Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu’s attempt to persuade people in Malappuram to vote for BJP was marred by his translator who tried his best to give his own angle to the translation. By the end of the hilarious translation, Naidu can be heard saying “you are translating my English into your English.” The video is at the end of this story.
Contrary to this, Jyothi Vijayakumar, who translated the emotional speech of Congress President Sonia Gandhi in Thiruvananthapuram, stood out after the Congress leader herself came down to congratulate her saying she did a marvelous job. According to Jyothi, a few days prior to the speech, she started watching videos of Sonia’s previous extempores to get familiarized with her vocabulary. This proved handy as Jyothi could effortlessly translate both words and emotions of Sonia Gandhi who was replying to the statements made by Prime Minister about her, which is currently a topic of national discussion.
The video of horrible translations, especially of Karat and Naidu, went viral after news satire shows in Malayalam channels picked it up. The translators are now being trolled in social media as graduates from “K Surendran School of Translation.”
Modi’s Speech
Brinda Karat’s Speech
Vankaiah Naidu’s Speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z1dOEnEvxk
Rajnath Singh’s Speech