In a video that has been going viral on Twitter, Indian Vice President Venkaiah Naidu is seen ‘mocking’ Mizoram Rajya Sabha member K Vanlalvena during the latter’s speech, asking him if he was speaking in Mizo when Vanlalvena was clearly speaking in English
According to EastMojo, during his speech on March 29, Vanlalvena urged the Centre to extend the National Waterway-6, a 121 km long stretch of Barak river in Assam, by another 100 km up to the Manipur-Mizoram border.
He does so in English. However, in the clip that has gone viral, VP Venkaiah Naidu is seen asking him whether he was speaking in Mizo.
#WATCH | “You speaking in Mizo?” asked Vice President Venkaiah Naidu to #Mizoram MP Vanlalvena indicating that he was unable to understand Vanlalvena’s language, even though Vanlalvena was speaking in English. pic.twitter.com/Nu2YoFxGBO
— NORTHEAST TODAY (@NortheastToday) April 1, 2022
People have been calling it out on social media.
YOU ARE SPEAKING IN MIZO? 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♂️
— Jon Suante (@jon_suante) March 30, 2022
Are YOU listening?@sangbarooahpish @ShekharGupta
📹 Sansad TV pic.twitter.com/VZ3UqLp6WM
Hon’ble Speaker @MVenkaiahNaidu humiliated Hon’ble MP from Mizoram, Shri K Vanlalvena, over his accent. If this is the attitude towards the people of NE by a person holding dignified position in RS, I am sorry to say but the people of NE are doomed. #RespectAllAccents pic.twitter.com/1p0WGc3GWw
— Dr. Lamtinthang Haokip (@DrLamtinthangHk) March 31, 2022
He was perfectly audible and understandable!
— PriyabrataT (@PriyabrataT) March 31, 2022
This clearly is arrogance of power.
Oh this is aweful. This being done to a minister.. what chance average ppl have https://t.co/Lu3GFKlht1
— Pallavi Gupta (@PGuptaFE) April 3, 2022
He uses condescension to hide his own lack of comprehension. https://t.co/PV8hqZD9dg
— aditya (@snippwipp) April 2, 2022
Hello @MVenkaiahNaidu , that was really in bad taste, not worthy of the chair you occupy! Please apologise. https://t.co/ppH60oEUZ8
— Uttam Pegu/乌塔姆·佩古/Umme Pe’gu/उत्तम पेगू/উত্তম পেগু (@uttampegu) April 2, 2022
How an aghast behaviour of Mr Naidu was, he knew that the member was speaking in english, elected member of the House, representative of common people, despitefully, he abused to K. Vanlalvena,dignity of the House & speaker, people of Mizoram & Indianness.
— Bhanwarlal Dadhich (@BLDADHICH) April 2, 2022
Is he not a vile man ? https://t.co/tCstz1ILn0
Will we ever see the rest of the country behaving respectfully to the fellow northeastern people? Its so sad to watch our parliamentarians entertaining racisim. https://t.co/m2CWH6MAeE
— @iambhaskar (@doi_sira) April 2, 2022
Racism is a disease in India outside the Northeast, or outside any region that doesn’t fit the mainland perspective of what Indians should look like or how they should speak. https://t.co/TrqcuuyHSc
— Kabir Firaque (@KabirFiraque) April 1, 2022
This is what is called as superiority complex, not asking/requesting people to spell names as it is.
— Priya/Zuri/Louise (@klishtakara) April 1, 2022
Pronunciation & spellings are different!
Against such behaviours that make others feel inferior about their accent, definitely not in the House. https://t.co/9joTkyshP5
Mainlander learns about different accents https://t.co/EeX56GIcVQ
— antisocialdaisy (@amoyiesailo) April 1, 2022
This is the level of discourse in Parliament today. Such a shame that it’s the speaker no less. https://t.co/KocGdiPZha
— Yossarian’s Mess (@MothKaSaudagar) April 1, 2022
His accent is very much clear… Being at such dignified position he just showed how narrow his thoughts are. https://t.co/ziavYlqCeJ
— Charlie (@Charlie_echo87) April 1, 2022
Meanwhile, Vanlalvena did not make too much of the matter. Speaking to EastMojo, he said:
The chairman was joking with me because I had earlier (in a joke) told the chairman that I would from now deliver a speech in Mizo.
IDK guys, the English was very clearly comprehensible and joke or not, it was very unparliamentary.
