The woke lobby had cultivated a rather typical image of PM Modi over the past couple of decades, or rather a typical image of his supposed disdain for media and interviews. From evading press conferences to refusing media interviews, the Bharatiya PM has been accused of everything when it comes to interaction with the press.
The truth is the mainstream media of that time, deeply entrenched in the dynamics of the Lutyens’ cabal, harassed PM Modi so much in the aftermath of the 2002 Godhra riots, that he indeed began to shun media. It wasn’t a conversation; the woke media had already branded PM Modi as an “enabler of the genocide of Muslims”. He was pronounced guilty without trial. If the media is hell-bent on tarnishing your reputation without engaging with you in a constructive dialogue, without any concrete evidence, based purely on hearsay and conspiracy theories, and without letting you offer a rebuttal, what option you have left other than boycotting them?
Thus, PM Modi distanced himself from the media which in the meantime, kept on labeling him as the mastermind of the 2002 Godhra riots, and much of this propaganda continues even today, years after the court has given him a clean chit.
In the run-up to the 2014 general elections in Bharat, the media was rife with anti-Modi conspiracy theories of all kinds – how our democracy will vanish overnight if such a leader is elected to power, how shocking it will be to have someone as a PM who has the blood of Muslims on hands, etc. The irony is that in those times, the media was so ridiculously over-the-top leftist and biased that one hardly had access to an alternative perspective. Social media in Bharat was still at a very nascent stage and all mainstream media was controlled by the Lutyens’ cabal.
In such a charged-up atmosphere, Ashok Srivastava of DD News managed to get an interview with PM Modi, ahead of the 2014 general elections. Srivastava himself narrates the incident in detail in an interview given to The Jaipur Dialogues. Doordarshan was so strictly controlled by the Congress at that time that Srivastava’s interview was broadcast on DD only after huge chunks of the same were edited.
Eventually, Ashok Srivasatava was rebuked for not showing Modi in a negative light enough in the interview. He was accused of having links with the Sangh Parivar. Srivasatava almost lost his job and got his position back only when the BJP government came back to power after the 2014 general elections.
Ashok Srivastava has narrated all this in detail in his book “Narendra Modi Censored”. In his various accounts of the PM Modi interview he took for Doordarshan in the run-up to the 2014 general elections, Srivasatava emphasizes that when he actually met Modi in person and interviewed him, he came across a person completely different from the image that the media had cultivated. Thus, those talking about the loss of freedom of expression and censorship of media during the present BJP rule should perhaps look at how the media was censored when the Congress was in power, he asserts.
But now in 2024, the whole industry spinning fake narratives about PM Modi’s apparent media allergy seems to be on rather shaky grounds. The Bharatiya Prime Minister has recently given a string of media interviews to both noted national and international media outlets. In all these interviews, he hasn’t shied away from addressing many controversial questions.
First, it was PM Modi’s Newsweek interview that had his detractors gasping for cover as the interview became a strong medium for the Prime Minister to narrate his version of the story to the world, and thus give the global viewers an alternate viewpoint. The mainstream global media mostly offers a highly prejudiced narrative of the Bharatiya PM and the BJP government calling them “right-wing, Hindu majoritarian” and accusing them of suppressing the rights of minorities without any evidence whatsoever, and without offering any viewpoint from their side. Most of such coverage quotes anti-BJP left-leaning scholars and intellectuals and fails to balance their viewpoint with any counter viewpoint. Thus, the Newsweek interview was a refreshing break from such stories, and that’s why the woke leftists hated it, denouncing it as scripted and motivated in their usual high-pitched shrieks.
In his latest series of interviews, PM Modi has given two extremely important interviews to the News18 network and The Times of India. The hour-long News18 interview was broadcast on the News18 Hindi news channel. PM Modi was interviewed by a panel of three interviewers comprising Network18 Group Editor-In-Chief Rahul Joshi, News18 Kannada Editor Hariprasad, and News18 Lokmat anchor Vilas Bade.
The PM addressed a broad spectrum of questions in the interview ranging from the controversy surrounding his comments on the Congress’s agenda of wealth redistribution, his views on various components of the Congress manifesto, the opposition allegations against him for using ED, CBI, EVM, etc. to stifle the opposition, his reactions on the opposition claims that they will undo many of his government’s important decisions like CAA if they come to power, etc.
On the question regarding opposition parties promising to undo many of the Modi government’s major achievements like the CAA, the scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, etc. PM Modi responded zestfully that he challenges the Congress party to hold a press conference and declare that they will restore Article 370 in J & K. He said that the Congress party keeps on talking about the Constitution all the time but they are the ones who have gone against the constitution multiple times.
“They talk about Babasaheb Ambedkar. They abuse us so much. But Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution was not applicable in Jammu and Kashmir. There, Dalits are getting reservation for the first time (after the Article 370 move). The Valmiki community is getting reservation for the first time. What are they talking about? Do they have the courage to hold a press conference and say ‘we’ll bring back Article 370’? Can any party dare say that?”, he said in the interview.
On the question of his allegations against the Congress that under their wealth redistribution promises, they will take away the hard-earned savings and the wealth of the middle class, and even the gold of women and distribute it amongst Muslims and infiltrators, PM Modi said that all this was in the Congress manifesto, and he was not making it up. He further emphasized that it was the job of the media to do a. Comparative analysis of the manifestos of all political parties and bring out these things in front of the public. But since the media never did that, he had to take it as his responsibility to alert the public to the dangers of the Congress manifesto which had the stamp of the Muslim League.
Throughout his interview, PM Modi emphasized many times that the Congress party, in its quest for minority appeasement, had gone against the constitution many times. By declaring that the Muslims had the first right to the country’s resources and by paving the way for the inclusion of Muslims into the OBC category, the Congress was taking away the constitutional right of the SCs, STs and OBCs by basing reservations on religion, by introducing religion into the reservation debate, he asserted.
On the question of the Congress talking about increasing OBC representation in posts of judges and in the media industry, PM Modi said that his government had never enacted any policy that was stopping anybody from progressing in life and reaching any coveted position. “It is their (Congress’s) sins that the country is paying for. If they had followed secularism in the true sense, had done social justice in the true sense, not done vote bank politics, then they would not have had to roam around with fake papers today. I believe that whatever I have been doing for the past 10 years, the results will be such that whatever questions are asked, we will be able to answer them, based on our actions”.
He further spoke about how the BJP had walked the talk of secularism every time it came to power. PM Modi recounted how APJ Abdul Kalam was made the President during the Vajpayee government time. Then, when the BJP won the 2014 elections, Ramnath Kovind belonging to the SC community was made the President, and then during BJP’s second stint, the country got its first Adivasi President in the form of Draupadi Murmu.
The PM also emphasized how the BJP had truly democratized the whole Padma awards ecosystem, impartially giving recognition to prominent personalities from the opposition who deserved it. He also said that the media should consider doing a detailed story on how the BJP changed the whole Padma awards ecosystem.
On the question of personal attacks and insults being hurled against him repeatedly right since his days as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, PM Modi gave an emotionally charged response. “I do not have an answer to this but why should Modi be asked this question? This question should be discussed in the country and in public life. After all, what is Modi’s crime? He became the Prime Minister, that is his crime, isn’t it? That means whatever abuses you are hurling; you are hurling them at the Prime Minister. To say things like we will bash the Prime Minister’s head or to abuse my mother… I am shocked that even the President of India was insulted. I am ashamed of this. I have always considered the voters and the country my family. I am going forward with a positive attitude, but I leave the responsibility on people like you and the voters to deal with such people as they deem fit”, he said.
In a detailed interview given to The Times of India, PM Modi addressed a few similar questions and a few different ones. He gave detailed responses to a bunch of controversial questions.
On the question of BJP seeking votes solely based on the Ayodhya Ram Mandir issue, PM Modi asserted that the Ram Mandir issue was indeed an emotive issue for the people of the country. But so were numerous other developmental issues that the BJP had addressed like the issue of tap water connections, LPG connections, toilets, etc. He referred to various BJP schemes for the economic empowerment of women such as Lakhpadi didis and numerous other schemes to provide easy and accessible loans to the poor. PM Modi also spoke about the Ayushman Bharat scheme, and how that was a game changer for Bharatiyas when it came to free access to medical treatment.
Thus, PM Modi aptly refuted the allegations made against the BJP government that it’s seeking votes solely based on religious polarization. He outlined the development narrative of his government during the interview, complete with facts. Now facts are something that the woke lobby shuns like the plague for reasons best known to them. The BJP government has done commendable work at the grassroots level, yet one rarely sees international media reports highlighting the achievements of Bharat in the past decade based on facts. All one gets to read are prejudiced rants against PM Modi and his government reeking of a colonial mindset. It’s great that finally, at least the Bharatiya media is giving space to PM Modi and his government. to put forth their point of view.
On the question of the opposition alleging threats to Bharatiya democracy and that the country is moving towards an electoral autocracy and that “the charge has found takers in many foreign capitals”, PM Modi responded, “This is an example of the scorched earth policy that our opposition is following. Because the opposition is not able to get power, they start defaming India on the world stage. They spread canards about our people, our democracy and our institutions. India does not become an electoral autocracy if the Yuvraj cannot automatically get power.
Just because he has to fight elections and the people of India are not impressed by him doesn’t make India less democratic. I don’t think there are many takers for such charges in foreign capitals. They are often more in sync with reality than the ‘certificate shops’ in their countries. When I engage with world leaders, I see genuine admiration for our democratic process and institutions. When they deep dive into the speed and scale of our electoral process, they are awed by our efficiency”.
On the question of the BJP government being accused of misusing investigation agencies like ED, CBI, etc. to silence political opponents and allegations that all tainted politicians get a clear chit once they join the BJP, the PM responded with a bunch of hard facts. He asserted that no investigation against an individual has been closed simply because they have joined another political party. He further emphasized that just a small fraction of agencies’ cases are related to political figures; only 3 percent of all corruption cases being probed by the ED involved politicians. Over the last 11 years, out of 10,622 preliminary inquiries and regular cases being investigated by the CBI, only about 1-1.5% of the total cases involved politicians. This debunks the claim of a politically motivated modus operandi. Another interesting fact is that before 2014, the ED attached assets worth only Rs 5,000 crore, whereas in the last 10 years that amount has increased to more than Rs 1 lakh crore”, he said.
PM Modi addressed a range of other questions including Bharat’s assertive foreign policy under his leadership, his vision to make Bharat a developed country by 2024, Modi equaling Pandit Nehru’s record of scoring three straight wins if BJP formed the government the 3rd time consecutively, etc. It’s beyond the scope of the article to include responses to all the questions. But the point we are trying to make is that the woke agenda of portraying PM Modi as being antagonistic against the media seems to be no longer working.
The woke lobby would still be making allegations that these interviews are scripted and all but the citizens of Bharat have their sense of intellect and judgment to independently assess who is the one manipulating what and to what extent.
