Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal is facing flak from the Opposition for mixing up RRR screenwriter V Vijayendra Prasad with Naatu Naatu lyricist Chandrabose, and mistakenly terming the latter a Rajya Sabha MP. Goyal was speaking to reporters after addressing the CII Partnership Summit 2023, where he sought to congratulate the artists behind Naatu Naatu for winning the Oscar in the Best Original Song category, a first for any Indian film song.
In doing so, Goyal said, "the scriptwriter for 'Naatu Naatu' is a Rajya Sabha colleague of ours (sic)". He further added, "It is a matter of pride for us that honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi has nominated those names to the Rajya Sabha who bring pride, honour and dignity to the country on the global stage". Goyal was making an apparent reference to RRR scriptwriter V Vijayendra Prasad, who was nominated to the Rajya Sabha last year.
According to Article 80 of the Constitution (Composition of the Council of States), the President of India nominates members to the Rajya Sabha, not the Prime Minister.
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Goyal also sought to congratulate the makers of the documentary The Elephant Whisperers, which won the Best Documentary Short category at the 95th Academy Awards, but ended up calling it 'Elephant Whispering'. He said, "Two Indian women also won an Oscar for their documentary, 'Elephant Whispering' (sic)".
Reacting to Goyal's goof up, Manickam Tagore, Congress Lok Sabha whip and MP from Virudhunagar (Tamil Nadu), sought to point out the difference between a lyricist and a screenwriter. Taking to Twitter, Tagore termed the mixup "a clear case of sycophancy".
The same mistake, however, did not reflect in Goyal's Facebook post last night, where he praised PM Modi for 'nominating' V Vijayendra Prasad to the Rajya Sabha, writing, "Shri V. Vijayendra Prasad, the scriptwriter of the film 'RRR', is one of the several exceptional people whom the Prime Minister nominated to the Rajya Sabha in July 2022... Today, the global spotlight is on ‘RRR’ for winning an Oscar for the original song ‘Naatu Naatu’. This is a global endorsement of the Prime Minister's choice."
On Tuesday morning, news agency ANI published a video featuring Goyal's interaction with journalists after the CII Partnership Summit last night wherein the mix-up is apparent.