In a time of misinformation, even Prime Minister Imran Khan can be forgiven for quoting the wrong person. Well, actually he credited the wrong person to the quote he shared on his Twitter recently.
While the stealthy cat filter incident from a few days ago was cute, miscrediting a quote is not that cute. Especially if you happen to be the Prime Minister of a country.
Recently Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted an inspirational quote by Rabindranath Tagore. Sounds normal, except he attributed it to Kahlil Gibran. Talk about not doing their research before hitting ‘send tweet.’
This mistake made Twitterati crawl out of the woodworks (and their skin).
ALSO READ
People Think Shaan Shahid Is Trying to Incite Violence With This Tweet
Here’s What Happened
Imran Khan posted a picture of Rabindranath Tagore’s quote;
Those who discover and get to understand the wisdom of Gibran's words, cited below, get to live a life of contentment. pic.twitter.com/BdmIdqGxeL
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) June 19, 2019
He captioned the photo:
“Those who discover and get to understand the wisdom of Gibran’s words, cited below, get to live a life of contentment.”
Turns out that quote is not by Gibran, but rather Tagore.
In case you aren’t aware, Khalil Gibran is a Lebanese writer. While Rabindranath Tagore is a famous Indian poet and Nobel laureate. Rabindranath Tagore’s original quote is phrased differently too:
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”
That was too many mistakes for a tweet. So Twitterati dug right in.
Prime Minister, I think these are Tagore’s words
— Azhar Abbas (@AzharAbbas3) June 19, 2019
Rabindranath Tagore quoted, "I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I woke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy."
And PM of 'Naya Pakistan', Imran Khan thinks it is quoted by Gibran.🤦♀️#Pakistan, pls take care of yourself cause your PM has lost it! pic.twitter.com/hhmBJvD1Fu
— Sajeda Akhtar (@Sajeda_Akhtar) June 19, 2019
This guy really took a dig at the PM’s election campaign.
Dear PM @ImranKhanPTI. We all know #WhatsApp had a big role in getting you "selected" but stop putting the fwds u rcv there online, especially when they are false. Like this one, which has not been said by Kahlil Gibran but Rabindranath Tagore: https://t.co/UBcNSTmykv pic.twitter.com/ljdKlwuyJK
— Taha Siddiqui (@TahaSSiddiqui) June 19, 2019
Pakistan’s journalist community is doubling down.
Sir, these are Rabindranath Tagore's words, not Khalil Jibran's.
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. https://t.co/OVIkBdxh9c
— Gharidah Farooqi (@GFarooqi) June 19, 2019
ALSO READ
These Bollywood Celebrities Took Money for Doing Political Propaganda!
Look who else came out of the woodwork
پاکستان مسلم لیگ (ن) کی ترجمان مریم اورنگزیب کا وزیراعظم کے رابیندرناتھ ٹیگور کا قول خلیل جبران کے نام سے ٹویٹ کرنے پر تبصرہ
عمران صاحب نقل کے لئے بھی عقل کی ضرورت ہوتی ہے
عمران صاحب آپ اتنے نالائق ہیں کہ آپ کے پاس نقل کی بھی عقل نہیں ہے
عمران صاحب نقل وہ بھی غلط @pmln_org
— Marriyum Aurangzeb (@Marriyum_A) June 19, 2019
We owe better to Asia’s first Nobel Prize laureate.
From the person who won Asia’s first Nobel Prize – pic.twitter.com/irIn1qwsO7
— Velociraptor 🦖 🇮🇳 (@raptorsworld) June 19, 2019
Another gem from Imran Khan's trove of knowledge, shares Tagore's work and calls it work of Kahlil Gibran pic.twitter.com/ggujgodKaZ
— Observer (@upbeat_20) June 19, 2019
Someone came up with this apology.
— Krishna (@Atheist_Krishna) June 19, 2019
If you think someone could not top this blunder. Think again.
https://twitter.com/PrinceKashmiri_/status/1141332543561560066
ALSO READ
Minister of Climate Change Thinks Good Weather is Due to a “Naik Government” [Video]
Minister for Climate Change tried to ‘salvage’ the situation Zartaj Gul Wazir:
https://twitter.com/ZartajGulWzir/status/1141343916932947969
All we can say is this. Someone at PM Office needs to hire a better social media intern. After Shaan’s gaffe with Sallahuddin Ayubi, we didn’t think this could happen to someone else.