Rahul Gandhi mocks Modi's water-from-air idea; ministers hit back

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday (October 9) took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suggestion that wind turbines could be used to produce water, only to face rebuke from Union ministers.

While interacting virtually with Henrik Anderson, the president and CEO of Danish wind energy company Vestas, on Wednesday, Modi had said that wind turbines could extract water from the atmosphere in places with high levels of moisture, which could then be used for drinking purpose. Wind turbines put to such a use can help alleviate water problem, especially in coastal areas, he said.   

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Modi also asked Anderson if wind turbines can be used to separate oxygen from air to capture the oxygen market. Then one turbine can be used to provide drinking water, oxygen, and also energy for a three-in-one solution.

Gandhi on Friday shared a video clip of the interaction and  tweeted: “The real danger to India isn’t that our PM doesn’t understand. It’s the fact that nobody around him has the guts to tell him.”

Union ministers Smriti Irani and Piyush Goyal retorted saying Gandhi was ignorant and that he did not understand the idea.

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Irani, the textiles minister tweeted: “They say ignorance is bliss, but rarely in Indian politics has an individual made a conscious effort to sustain his ignorance. It seems the real danger to the Congress flourishes unabashedly and no one seems to have the guts to tell the Yuvraj otherwise.”

Piyush Goyal said the idea is plausible. “Nobody around Rahul Gandhi has the guts to tell him that he doesn’t understand. He mocks PM @NarendraModi’s ideas when CEO of the world’s leading company endorses them,” he tweeted. He then provided a link to report carried by CNN in 2012 that said wind turbine was used to create water from thin air.