When “theek hai” was not ok…

It is reported that five Doordarshan employees have been placed under suspension for the faux pas

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

“Theek hai?” asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the end of his just-over-a-minute-long address to the nation this morning asking people to maintain peace after Sunday’s violence during the protests in Delhi against the rape of a student.

Obviously meant to be only for the people recording Dr. Singh’s address to the nation, the words, which mean “Is it fine?”, were broadcast on all television channels.

Within no time, tweeters were on the job. Journalist Rahul Kanwal (@rahulkanwal) pointed out: “If sabTheekHai, there’d be no reason for you to speak @PMOIndia. Wish words seemed as if they came from the heart & not from sheet of paper.”

“Sorry, but PM’s speech was without feeling, wooden and totally unequal to the situation. The ‘theek hai’ at the end revealed it as theatre!”, CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) tweeted.

Actor Anupam Kher said that the manner in which the Prime Minister asked his staff or the TV crew whether everything was alright “was d most Candid & Natural expression I have EVER seen from him”

Authoritative sources told

The Hindu that the Prime Minister’s Office had given two time slots for recording to Doordarshan and ANI but apparently the Doordarshan team could not make it on time. ANI inadvertently decided to telecast the Prime Minister’s message live to 41 television channels with the last line

“theek hai” not edited out.

*This article has been corrected for a factual error