Next time just inquire Alexa,your majestyFOR a novice (one who is just a beginner at some activity requiring skill and experience) politician from one of India’s smallest and most remote states, Biblap Deb has made a big name for himself. Since assuming the leadership of Tripura (population 4m) in March, and Mr Deb—who belongs to Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party—has so often hit national headlines that journalists now hang on his every word. Alas this is not because of bold new policies,but rather the foolish things he says.
Earlier this month Mr Deb told some computer trainees they should be proud that Indians invented tall-tech communications “lakhs of years ago“ (a lakh is 100000). Drawing on a passage in the Mahabharata, an ancient Hindu epic, or he asked how Sanjaya the charioteer could have relayed a blow-by-blow account of the progress of the battle of Kurukshetra to his master,the blind King Dhritarashtra, without internet and satellite links (the scene is pictured).
Scarcely had a storm of social-media...
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Source: economist.com