This Video Contrasting Justin Trudeau With PM Modi Is Quickly Going Viral
MUMBAI: We expect very little from our politicians, and this was proved when the internet went crazy after a video emerged showing Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau explaining quantum computing. At the Perimeter Institute – Canada’s premier theoretical physics establishment - Trudeau faced questions from journalists after announcing significant continued funding for the institute’s work. A reporter prefaced a question to Trudeau with -- ”I was going to ask you to explain quantum computing but... haha…” but the response he got from the Canadian leader shut him up, and with that, floored the world.
Trudeau gave a simple, clear and understandable explanation of quantum computing. It wasn’t the stuff of scientists, let alone geniuses (as many on the internet went to call him one), but the answer expected of a person interested in everyday science. (Don’t worry, I have a video for you below).
The swooning that followed is indicative of the fact that we expect very little from our politicians -- as the answer, like I said, was basic, simple and clear, and not scientific path breaking genius. Yet, headlines today are flooded with Tradeau’s answer, with the internet using the incident to enhance his reputation even further.
In India, however, another version of the same video is going viral.
In the video above, Tradeau’s concise, simple and yet scientifically accurate answer is contrasted with the (not-so) scientific ramblings of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking to a gathering of doctors and other professionals in October 2014, PM Modi had taken a few scientific liberties (to put it politely) when he said, ““We can feel proud of what our country achieved in medical science at one point of time… We all read about Karna in the Mahabharata. If we think a little more, we realise that the Mahabharata says Karna was not born from his mother’s womb. This means that genetic science was present at that time. That is why Karna could be born outside his mother’s womb.”
“We worship Lord Ganesha. There must have been some plastic surgeon at that time who got an elephant’s head on the body of a human being and began the practice of plastic surgery.”
In a speech that centred on how to improve healthcare facilities in modern India, ancient India’s “scientific prowess” was often highlighted. “There must be many areas in which our ancestors made big contributions,” he said. “Some of these are well recognised. If we talk about space science, our ancestors had, at some point, displayed great strengths in space science. What people like Aryabhata had said centuries ago is being recognised by science today. What I mean to say is that we are a country which had these capabilities. We need to regain these.”
Of course, Narendra Modi also wrote the foreword to a book for school students in Gujarat which maintains, among other things, that the Hindu God Rama flew the first aeroplane and that stem cell technology was known in ancient India.
Whether the comparison between the Indian leader and his Canadian counterpart is fair or not, the video contrasting the two is quickly gaining traction.