Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took Prime Minister Narendra Modi to task on Thursday (April 27) for a joke he had made over a suicide note.
In a tweet, she hit out at the PM and others laughing heartily at his joke involving a suicide note during a media channel conclave and said they need to educate themselves better rather than “ridicule” mental health issues in an “insensitive” manner.
Modi, while speaking at a media channel conclave on Wednesday, had narrated a joke about how a professor reading a suicide note by his daughter remarked how she had got a spelling wrong despite his efforts for so many years. The joke was made by the PM while remarking that the channel’s editor-in-chief had started speaking well in Hindi.
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Tagging the video of Modi’s joke at the conclave, Priyanka Gandhi tweeted, “Depression and suicide, especially among the youth IS NOT a laughing matter. According to NCRB data, 1,64,033 Indians committed suicide in 2021. Of which a huge percentage were below the age of 30. This is a tragedy not a joke.”
“The Prime Minister and those laughing heartily at his joke ought to educate themselves better and create awareness rather than ridicule mental health issues in this insensitive, morbid manner,” the Congress general secretary said on Twitter and tagged PM Modi and The Live Love Laugh Foundation that deals with mental health issues.