Organisation of disabled people criticises Modi’s dyslexia jibe

Kolkata: An organisation that works for differently-abled people on Friday said it was “shocked” at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comment during a discussion on dyslexia with a student recently.

“We, the members of Paschimbanga Rajya Pratibandhi Sammilani, the West Bengal affiliate of National Platform for Rights of the Disabled (NPRD), are constrained to express the profound shock and disappointment regarding the remarks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an interaction with the students in IIT Roorki on March 3, 2019 that have caused pain not only to us but to scores of disabled people of our state, especially those grappling with the conditions of specific learning disability of which dyslexia is a part,” a statement from the organisation said.

Kanti Ganguly, the General Secretary of the organisation, feared that Modi’s comments might demoralise researchers from taking up ventures to lessen the sufferings of the disabled people of the country.

Modi, last week, asked a girl whether the project based on dyslexic people would benefit a 40 or 50-year-old child, adding the mother of such children would be very happy if it did. Modi was doing a video interaction.

IANS