Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Monday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his purported political potshot at Congress president Rahul Gandhi while discussing dyslexia with a student.

The Congress leader tweeted: 'Just came across a video of our @narendramodi taking political potshots using the name of dyslexic people. Shame on you Modi!! You just can't go below this. Your insensitivity can't be washed away by dipping in any river. They may be slow in learning but not heartless like you.'

Karnataka Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao also hit out at Modi. He posted a video of the Prime Minister making the comment and tweeted: 'If there was ever a classless crude Prime Minister India has seen, here's one. Yuck!'

During a video interaction that was part of the Smart India Hackathon on Sunday, a BTech student from Uttarakhand started to explain to Modi that her project related to people with dyslexia, a learning disability. “I feel really blessed to get this opportunity to… express my words in front of you…. Basically, our idea is based on dyslexic people. Dyslexic children are those whose learning and writing pace is very slow. But their intelligence and creativity levels are quite high,” she said, citing the example of a character from the Bollywood movie Taare Zameen Par.

At this point, video recordings of the event show Modi interrupting her to say: “Could this idea help any 40 or 50-year-old child?”

As Modi broke into a chuckle, many in the audience laughed and clapped before the student replied: “Yes, sir, it will.”

Modi then said: “The mother of such children would become very happy.”