Is Everything Including Camera Angles Scripted While Interviewing PM Modi?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is known for evading unscripted speeches or interviews. Apparently, the PM will attend interviews only if the questions are scripted and cameras are placed as he wishes. In a recent exclusive interview promo released by the TV Today Network, PM Modi was seen talking to a group of journalists of the organisation while the camera focused on him and was placed behind the journalists. Even more interesting aspect of this interview is, Rajdeep Sardesai, the senior most news anchor in India Today, was not seen in this group.
The interview is yet to be aired. India Today, one of the news channels of the TV Today Network said that the interview is the “biggest interview in this election season”. The news outlet said PM will share his “views on the opposition INDIA bloc, reservation politics as well as the NDA”s aim of securing 400 plus seats, his insights and perspectives on the past 10 years of his government and the agenda ahead if the BJP returned to power”.
When PM @NarendraModi asked “Rahul, who”?
Catch the #SabseSolidModiInterview tonight only on India Today and @aajtak. You can”t miss this! #Promo #PMModi #Exclusive | @rahulkanwal @sudhirchaudhary @SwetaSinghAT @anjanaomkashyap pic.twitter.com/1cdkiiLwFa
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) May 16, 2024
Responding to the news channel”s X (formerly twitter), Priyanka Chaturvedi, deputy leader of Shiv Sena UBT (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) accused the journalists of “leaving behind their logic, brain and journalism degree” while going to interview PM Modi. She said the interviewers were apparently not allowed to “set up their own cameras and have their camera team there. All organised by PMO India”. Mocking the journalists who agreed to do the interview despite the alleged restrictions, Chaturvedi said the “joke is on journalism sadly”.
Interviews with PM are a joke since journalists have to leave their patrakarita and logic behind. Sabse solid bhakti indeed. pic.twitter.com/gkbwndYYUj
— Priyanka Chaturvedi🇮🇳 (@priyankac19) May 16, 2024
Reportedly, the “last press conference” attended by an Indian Prime Minister was ten years ago on January 3, ten years ago. Then PM Manmohan Singh hosted more than 100 journalists who threw over 62 questions towards him. The current PM, Narendra Modi never attended a single press conference since he was elected as the Prime Minister in 2014.
Last year, he answered two questions by journalists in the White House during his visit to US. New York Times noted the event and said that, “though he loves speeches at public events, and has leaned into his monthly radio show as a way to deliver messages to the nation, any exposure to unscripted events had been a rarity before the White House event, and probably will be again afterward”.
AP reported the event as a “rare occurrence for the Indian Prime Minister who avoids unscripted moments and has presided over a steady decline in press freedom in his country”.
