Hyderabad based Assamese artist Mehnaz Ummeid Ali Sharma Bhorali has criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his ‘distasteful’ remark about people with dyslexia.
Bhorali who launched online petition to provide free training programmes to understand dyslexia in schools across the country two years back, has termed Modi’s remark as unfortunate and tragic, according to reports.
The artist who also suffered from dyslexia in her childhood, said that Modi should have a complete knowledge of dyslexia and the political leader should not have broken into a chuckle when an engineering student was trying to explain how her project could help people with dyslexia.
During a video interaction with students at the Smart India Hackathon in IIT Roorkee, a student told Prime Minister Modi about her project to help dyslexic kids and gave an example of the movie Taare Zameen Par. Modi asked her if the project “will help a kid who is 40-50 years old”.
When the student replied positively , the Prime Minister said , “the mother of such kids would be very happy.”
The remark of Modi drew widespread criticism from a large number of people and most of them wanted the Prime Minister to apologize for his ‘insensitive’ comment directed towards people suffering from dyslexia.
Bhorali said that while the engineering student was trying to explain her project that could benefit people with dyslexia, Modi’s remark not only made her feel uncomfortable but also led other students at the event to have a hearty laugh.
She also said that if the Prime Minister had shown a little respect for the student’s project, it could also have encouraged people suffering from dyslexia.
The government did not respond to the artist’s petition as it had not gain the required number of signatories.
However, the artist was not discouraged by this and proved to be a perfect example of inspiration to the society through her works in art.