The United States President Joe Biden seemed to have had a “Dr Manmohan Singh moment” on Tuesday while reading a speech off a teleprompter about the rising gas prices. Biden recited ‘end of quote’ after referencing a statement made by the CEO of Walmart during his speech.
“And, by the way, you may have heard the CEO of Walmart yesterday on the steps we’ve taken. He said, and I quote, ‘The combination of private enterprise and government working together has been really successful,’” Biden said in the speech.
“He went on to say, “All the way through the supply chain, there’s… a lot of innovation.” Because of the actions we’ve taken, things have begun to change. End of quote.”
Biden then went on to the next sentence. However, the faux pas of mentioning ‘End of quote’ during his speech was not lost on the listeners, who compared him with Roy Burgandy, the fictional newscaster from the movie “Anchorman” after he recited the words “end of quote” after referring to a statement made by the CEO of Walmart.
The faux pas by Biden reminds one of PM Manmohan Singh’s ‘Theek Hai?’ remark
Back in India, Biden’s gaffe called to mind the embarrassing incident when former Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh interrogatively asked “theek hai?” to DD staffers after they recorded his statement to the nation on the Delhi rape incident in December 2012.
Delhi was convulsed with the horrifying gang rape and torture of a girl in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, prompting widespread protests over the safety of women in the country. As demonstrations and protests turned violent, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the nation asking people to maintain peace after bouts of violence during the protests in Delhi against the rape of a student.
Singh ended his minute-long address to the nation by asking “theek hai?” to the people who were recording his message. The question was meant for the broadcasters but was inadvertently aired on national television, drawing a severe backlash on social media where people slammed the Prime Minister for displaying casual apathy towards the plight of women in the country.
‘Theek Hai’ instantly became the top trending hashtags on Twitter, with people using the words to take a sarcastic dig at PM Manmohan Singh for his remarks during the address to the nation on the brutal rape of a 23-year-old girl in the national capital.