On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held his annual 'Pariksha Pe Charcha' interaction with students preparing for upcoming examinations. The event sees Modi interact with students and teachers from across the country.
As in the past editions of Pariksha Pe Charcha, Modi dealt with questions from students and teachers on multiple aspects of student life. But one particular piece of advice from Modi to the students caused a stir on social media.
The Twitter handles of the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Mann ki Baat and Prime Minister's Office tweeted that Modi had said, "Attempt the difficult questions first".
Not surprisingly, the claim evoked ridicule among numerous Twitter users, who argued it went against the conventional practice of answering easy questions in examinations first. The aforementioned handles deleted the tweets. The Aam Aadmi Party sought to troll Modi on the deletion of the tweets.
The Aam Aadmi Party tweeted on Thursday "Tweet DELETED! Apparently, these questions were too difficult to attempt for Modi ji." The party posed questions to Modi on PM CARES and vaccination and on whether he would ever address a press conference.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera also ridiculed the "difficult questions" claim. Khera tweeted, "Children, do not waste your time by paying attention to such wrong advice. If you get caught doing difficult questions first, then time will be wasted and your hands and feet will get swollen, so that the time for solving easy questions goes away."
So, what exactly did Modi say?
According to fact-checking website Boom Live, the official handles such as PIB and Prime Minister's Office misquoted what Modi said.
In the official video of Pariksha Pe Charcha uploaded by PIB, Modi responds to questions from a student from Arunachal Pradesh and a teacher who noted that children get "scared" of certain subjects. This interaction can be seen from 9.00 minutes on the PIB video uploaded on YouTube.
In his response, Modi related the fear of certain subjects to like and dislikes that students feel to particular subjects. "When you like certain things more, you become comfortable with them," Modi said, noting students needed to utilise their energy uniformly and "equally distribute" it across subjects. "If you have two hours to study, study each subject with equal devotion; distribute your time uniformly,” Modi said.
"You may have noticed teachers and parents teach us to do what is easy at first... we see it repeatedly said in examinations, 'do what is easy at first; if there is time left, do the difficult [questions],'” Modi said.
From approximately 13.40 minutes on the PIB video, Modi refers to the portion that has become contentious.
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"But on the issue of studying, I understand this advice (of doing easy things first) is not necessary or useful. On the issue of studying, I say take things that are difficult first as your mind is fresh. If you take the difficult things first, the easy things become easier," Modi said.
Modi referred to his experience as chief minister and then prime minister, noting that he also needed to study many things in these positions. "Those things that are difficult, I begin my day with them. The most difficult things are brought to me in the morning as they [aides] know I am in a 'different' mood and I understand things faster and move towards taking a decision... I take decisions on easier things in the evening,” Modi revealed.
