#128

Come Friday and prime minister Modi will complete three years in office.  To me, the most astounding and depressing aspect of all this is that in these three years, he has not given a single press conference.  In every liberal democracy, the head of the government subjects himself or herself to the difficult scrutiny by the members of the media from time to time.  But not Mr. Narendra Modi, who of course, likes to do the so called ''Mann Ki Baat'', that boring monologue, full of tired old cliches and platitudes, where only he can control the narrative.  Even someone like Mr. Vladimir Putin, who is not the most shining example of a democrat, addresses the members of the press once in a year around Christmas.  I want to know, what is the Prime Minister afraid of?  I can assure him that nobody is going to ask him about Gujarat 2002!  Over the years, we have seen how that has gone.  As it is, the government has already emasculated or at the very least, coopted a major chunk of the mainstream media.  So, there is no danger of Times of India doing to Mr. Modi what the Washington Post and the New York Times have been doing to Donald Trump.  Essencially, speaking truth to power.  On the other hand, a large section of the press and news networks over here have no compunction eating out of the establishment's hand.  The only reason I suspect is that contrary what we have been made to believe, Mr. Modi is actually quite risk-averse and cautious in his overall approach.  And if he's giving the media the opportunity to ask some questions, there might be a few surprises coming his way and I don't think he likes surprises.  He always wants to be in control of everything.