Modi stays silent at his first press briefing
Indian PM calls on party president to respond to all questions as challenger calls for live debate
AS CAMPAIGNING in the Indian general election drew to its conclusion, prime minister Narendra Modi called his first-ever press conference in a lastditch clarion call to voters – and failed to answer a single question.
Indian TV channels carried simultaneous press conferences from Mr Modi and the leader of the opposition Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi, as both called on the public to vote for their respective parties.
Journalists and the public had been keenly anticipating the inaugural question-and-answer session from the prime minister, who has not held a single one in five years as leader.
However, they were surprised when Mr Modi then opted to deflect every single question to Amit Shah, who is the president of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Mr Shah claimed the BJP would win 300 seats in the Indian parliament, which would be 18 more than it won last time when it secured the first outright majority in decades. Talking to the assembled media, Mr Modi insisted that he was confident the BJP would win the election.
“It has not happened often in our country that a government with full majority returns once again with a majority,” he said.
However, once the questions began, Mr Shah took every single one.
Mr Modi has been repeatedly criticised for not addressing a single press conference during his tenure.
He responded to the first question from the journalists by saying: “I am a disciplined soldier, the party president is everything for me.”
Mr Shah, to another question, said: “I have answered your question. It is not necessary for the prime minister to answer every question.”
The BJP had called the press conference after it had heard that Mr Gandhi would be addressing the media, according to sources.
But exactly why Mr Modi called it and then refused to answer questions was unclear. Krishan Partap Singh, an author, said: “Have we got it all wrong for five years? Is it possible Modi is the puppet and Amit Shah the puppet master? Sure looks like it at this presser.”
Mr Shah also said 80 of his party workers had been killed in campaignrelated violence in the last 18 months, and he defended a BJP candidate who had claimed that the man who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi was a “patriot”.
Mr Gandhi said of Mr Modi afterwards: “Excellent press conference.
“Showing up is half the battle. Next time, Mr Shah may even allow you to answer a couple of questions. Well done.”
Mr Gandhi has repeatedly asked Mr Modi to face him in a live debate, which the prime minister has declined.
Pundits speculated that the press conference was a sign that Mr Modi had been panicked by comments Mr Gandhi made recently that the prime minister was on borrowed time.
Some believed that he was appearing in response to violence in West Bengal over the past few days.
The West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, of the Trinamool Congress Party, claimed the BJP had come to the eastern state to disrupt the campaign with violence.
The seventh and final phase of voting in the elections is on Sunday, and results will be released on May 23.