The 'other' lady of Tamil Nadu

The exigencies of translating from Hindi to Tamil caused an amusing mix-up during Narendra Modi's speech at a rally in Erode. He said, "Sorry to say, one lady from Tamil Nadu was responsible for delaying many infrastructure projects." Then he paused while the sentence was translated. When it was, everybody, including National Democratic Alliance candidates who were sharing the stage with Modi, started clapping thinking the BJP's prime ministerial candidate was attacking Chief Minister Jayalaithaa, especially after the two chief ministers had heavily criticised each others' parties. Then Modi continued, "This lady from Congress caused huge losses to Tamil Nadu and India. It is not your fault since the people of Tamil Nadu did not elect her, she came through the Rajya Sabha." It took some time for everyone to realise that he was referring to the former Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan.