Arun Jaitley annoyed as man asks for Hindi translation of 'bullet train'

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was visibly annoyed on Sunday when a man interrupted him during an event here and sought to know the Hindi equivalent of 'bullet train.

As Jaitley was expounding on the bullet train initiative of the Narendra Modi government and rued that most debates on the issue he came across in India were "ill-informed", a man in the audience stood up.

He said: "Arun-ji, bullet train ko Hindi mein kya kehte hain? Hindi mein angrezi mat batiyaiye (What is a bullet train called in Hindi? Don't use English words while speaking in Hindi)."

A visibly annoyed Jaitley then told him to be a "little serious".

"Be a little serious please. You have been noticed once, thoda serious hone ka... gambhir hone ka bhi prayas kijiye (try to be serious)."

The man, however, persisted he had raised a "very serious" issue.

On September 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe laid in Ahmadabad in Gujarat the foundation stone of the country's first 508-km high-speed bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.