For keen watchers of Modi, such gaffes are par for the course though it seems out of place for a man who his once-upon-a-time-mentor L. K. Advani described as a "good event manager".

More so given how much of effort and planning is put into each of his public appearances.

Likening him to George W. Bush - who made a whole lot of "verbal slip-ups" - Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times, said: "If I ever do a revised edition of my book, I will look at Modisms".

Of the view that some of them are of the premier's own making - stemming out of over-confidence - and some because his back-up team is full of nuts and bolts operators for whom the main point of research is Wikipedia, Mukhopadhyay said: "This is purely his. He is so full of himself that he things he is the final word on everything. Even when events are choreographed, he wants to move away from the script."

While Govindacharya - former RSS ideologue who was also BJP general secretary before his falling out with the organisation - dismissed the factual mistake as human error, Congressman and leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly, Shakti Sinh Gohil, insisted they are part of the text.

"He likes to say things that hark back to the Sangh's idea of a golden era; never mind the facts," he said. But sociologist Shiv Visvanathan said the media was paying too much attention to such gaffes while ignoring the big picture; particularly his silences.

"His silences are more dangerous than his errors which are nothing more than spelling mistakes. He is trying to create a different kind of India which is not welcome," Visvanathan said.

The Konark statement, however, provided a lot of mirth online (see chart) to those who are not so enamoured by the Prime Minister and his ways.

The more ingenuous of them made a rather strong 'mocktale' of his ongoing whistlestop five-nation tour, the controversy over the film Udta Punjab, and Konark to post comments and tweets.