Danish Manzoor Bhat shared on X an image with PM Modi “where both of us are smiling”.
Newsweek journalist Danish Manzoor Bhat today took to X (formerly Twitter) to defend himself amid the backlash surrounding the news platform’s recent interview with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In an elaborate post, the Editorial Director, Asia & Sr. VP Editorial & News Innovation at Newsweek challenged critics to engage with both the interview and its companion piece before attacking him.
“To my dear friends reveling in their trolling endeavors: Yes, I secured the interview with the Indian Prime Minister, if you try, perhaps you will too,” he wrote on X.
“When indulging in my work, ensure you peruse both the interview and its companion piece—they are a package deal,” Bhat wrote.
Bhat suggested that “before aiming your critiques my way (a privilege I generously extend to you), I recommend a thorough read”.
The journalist stressed that countries are more than just their leaders and politics.
“The story of India deserves to be told without being patronising without the inherent bias that nothing could ever happen in developing nations. This needs to change. Countries are beyond their politicians and their politics,” Bhat said.
Bhat, who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, praised PM Modi as a “solid leader” who acknowledges his shortcomings and yet ensures progress and prosperity of the country.
“I say it again. On a personal level, I found the Indian prime minister to be solid leader who knows what he is doing, and also knows his shortcomings and is willing to work on those to ensure that the country he leads, progresses grows, and stays prosperous,” he shot back at his critics.
“If you didn’t like my interview with the Bhutan Prime Minister , now with the Indian Prime Minister, many of you definitely will not like other Asian leaders speaking to me in the days to come. But I will bring out the other side, and that is my promise to the people of the global south. Even if I’m seen as the Devil’s advocate. So be it. All stories need to be told and all sides deserve to be presented. Objectivity itself is subjective,” he wrote.
Sharing an image with PM Modi “where both of us are smiling”, Bhat quipped that many won’t even like that. “But that’s alright. I can live without your lectures,” he summed up.
PM Modi became the first Prime Minister of India to feature on Newsweek”s cover after Indira Gandhi. The New York-based magazine interviewed PM Modi in late March, primarily focusing on topics such as the India-China border situation, Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir, and abrogation of Article 370. The interview process began with a series of questions, which were followed by a 90-minute conversation at his official residence between PM Modi and the Newsweek President and CEO Dev Pragad, Global Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper and Editorial Director, Asia, Danish Manzoor Bhat, who was brutally trolled after he posted the excerpts of the interview.
