Federal Minister for Science & Technology Fawad Chaudhry, in yet another faux pas, has messed up the history of the United States (US) on-air by not only making polymath Benjamin Franklin an “American president”, but also accrediting him for 1930s’ New Deal.
Speaking to a private media outlet on Monday, the minister had said that it was time for a “New Deal” among all state institutions. “At the moment, no institution in Pakistan is strong enough to challenge any other institution. Everyone is looking to enhance their own mandate. We must slow down and strike a New Deal.”
“A deal like the one by US president Benjamin Franklin. It changed the entire country. It is what we need as well. Specially, at a time when the chief justice has also highlighted the need for a dialogue and the army chief as well as the prime minister want to strengthen civilian institutions,” Fawad had said.
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But what many, including the show hosts, didn’t realise, was that the science minister himself didn’t know what he was talking about.
Not only was Franklin never elected president of the US, the New Deal — a series of programmes, public work projects, financial reforms and regulations enacted by President Franklin Roosevelt between 1933 and 1939 — came over a 140 years after his death. The programmes responded to needs for relief, reform and recovery from the Great Depression.
This, however, isn’t the first time that Fawad has put himself in an awkward situation by presenting “alternate” facts. In May this year, he had said that the Hubble Space Telescope was sent into space by Pakistan’s aeronautics and aerospace research agency Suparco, instead of its US counterpart, NASA.
Twitter had erupted into a volley of laughs and memes following the gaffe, as people had mercilessly mocked the minister.
