On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave an interview to Smita Prakash of ANI, where he was asked questions on a range of issues from the economy, dissatisfaction among the middle class, the farm loan waiver, the Ram Mandir, the Rafale Deal, the Surgical strikes and others.
Prakash was extremely professional and did not shy away from asking difficult questions to Modi as we enter the election year. Some people, however, reached the conclusion that the interviewer went too easy on the Prime Minister, unlike Rajdeep Sardesai who questioned Sonia Gandhi regarding her activities in the kitchen.
Some believe that Narendra Modi’s remarks confirmed their own opinions although it’s quite unclear how.
I hate doing “I told you so” but like Modi, I feel I get only trolling, no credit 🙂
— Shivam Vij (@DilliDurAst) January 1, 2019
The primary contention in Vij’s article is that Hindutva will not be the central narrative of BJP’s campaign going into the General Elections. Vij claims that there will be a lot of Hindutva but it won’t be central to the campaign. He also asserted that the Prime Minister has somehow ‘given up’ on the Ram Temple.
The Prime Minister’s comment, however, was quite the opposite. He asserted his intent unequivocally. He even said that he will think about getting an ordinance only after the legal process was over. By his comment, one can undoubtedly conclude that Ram Temple is an important issue for the BJP and the PM has committed to do whatever is necessary to ensure that within the constitutional bounds, the Ram Temple is built. Shivam Vij perhaps reached this convoluted conclusion simply owing to his hatred for Modi and the fear, that if the Ram Temple is built, Congress would stand to lose.
Pratik Sinha from Altnews claimed that the interviewer had prompted the Prime Minister on a particular instance.
At 1:15, someone prompts the PM with the word ‘soch’, is it the interviewer? https://t.co/F4amFhvC0T
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) January 1, 2019
If this self-proclaimed fact-checker had watched the entire interview, he would have known that the Prime Minister had earlier in the interview called Congress a ‘soch’ without any prompt from the interviewer. Also, it is normal for an interviewer, in a matter of conversation, to mention what they might think the interviewee is going to say.
Sagarika Ghose believes that the interview was a soliloquy.
The @PMOIndia talks to himself in an extended soliloquy. Extraordinary! https://t.co/ZgbSNKQtBe
— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) January 1, 2019
Sanjukta, the ‘feminist’, called Smita Prakash a ‘presstitute’, a term we were told by feminists was extremely abusive and vulgar.
Smita Prakash of course have not sold her body, no but she is a presstitute because she sold her journalistic standards. She sits their like a duck as Modi rambles on. This is exactly what Karan Thapar said are the worst type of interviews. https://t.co/80C75Y9wpd
— Sanjukta (@sanjukta) January 1, 2019
Another ‘liberal’ claimed that Narendra Modi would justify Sati since he defended the tradition of Sabarimala.
He would have supported and justified Sati using exactly same words https://t.co/yUI2pZ5J6l
— Joy (@Joydas) January 1, 2019
Much like liberals in the United States who are suffering from the ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’, Indian liberals are suffering from the ‘Modi Derangement Syndrome’ where they find faults with anything and everything that Modi does regardless of the merit of their arguments.
