Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday offered a public defence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s longstanding practice of avoiding traditional press conferences, arguing that the Prime Minister engages with citizens directly through alternative channels and does not require mediated interactions with journalists to communicate with the country.
Speaking to reporters, Rijiju said Modi’s communication model deliberately bypasses the conventional press conference format in favour of direct engagement with the public, including election rallies, monthly radio addresses such as Mann Ki Baat, state visits, and digital platforms. According to Rijiju, this approach allows the Prime Minister to convey his government’s message without distortion or filtering by intermediaries in the news media.
Rijiju’s remarks come amid recurring questions from opposition leaders and sections of the press about why Modi has not held a formal press conference since assuming office in 2014, a break from the precedent set by several of his immediate predecessors, who faced journalists at regular intervals during their tenures.
What happened
Rijiju’s comments were made in response to questions about the Prime Minister’s media interactions, an issue that resurfaces periodically in Indian political discourse, particularly around major policy announcements, parliamentary sessions, and election cycles. The Minister’s framing — that direct citizen engagement is a substitute for press conferences — reflects a position the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has maintained consistently for over a decade.
Under the arrangement Modi has followed since 2014, the Prime Minister’s engagement with the news media has been conducted almost exclusively through:
– Written interviews given to select journalists on specific occasions, such as before international summits or the annual budget.
– Curated press statements released by the Prime Minister’s Office.
– Pre-scheduled addresses, including the monthly Mann Ki Baat broadcast on All India Radio, in which the Prime Minister speaks directly to listeners without journalists present.
– Extensive use of social media platforms, where Modi is among the most-followed world leaders.
– Public rallies, during which the Prime Minister speaks to large audiences but is not subject to unscripted questioning.
The arrangement differs markedly from that of previous Prime Ministers, including Manmohan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and several earlier incumbents, who held periodic press conferences during their tenures, sometimes facing sustained questioning from senior journalists on policy, governance, and political matters.
Why it matters
The question of whether a head of government should face the press directly is not merely symbolic. Press conferences, when conducted in their traditional form, allow journalists to ask follow-up questions, challenge statements, and hold powerful officeholders to account in real time. The format, while imperfect and frequently stage-managed, is widely regarded by press freedom advocates and constitutional scholars as one of several mechanisms through which democratic accountability is exercised in a parliamentary system.
Modi’s avoidance of the format has drawn criticism from opposition parties, press freedom organisations, and segments of the journalistic community. The Editors Guild of India and international bodies such as Reporters Without Borders have, in broader assessments, noted concerns about the working environment for journalists in India. India’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without Borders, has declined in recent years, though the index measures a range of factors including legal frameworks, ownership concentration, and physical safety of journalists, and is not attributable to any single leader’s media strategy.
The political significance of the issue is heightened by the fact that the Prime Minister’s office commands vast executive authority, controls major policy decisions, and sets the broader tone for the relationship between the government and the press. The absence of unscripted press interactions, critics argue, reduces the ability of journalists to test official claims in a public forum.
Supporters of the government’s approach, including party spokespersons and commentators aligned with the BJP, contend that Modi’s direct communication with citizens, including through Mann Ki Baat, rallies, and digital platforms, reaches far larger audiences than any press conference could, and is therefore a more democratic form of engagement. They also argue that press conferences in India have often been dominated by a narrow set of journalists and television anchors, and that direct outreach sidesteps this filter.
Background and context
The question of prime ministerial press conferences in India has a long history. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, held press conferences regularly, and the practice continued under several successors, though with varying frequency. In the decades before Modi took office, the press conference had become a familiar, if sometimes adversarial, fixture of the prime ministerial calendar.
Modi’s decision to forgo the format is consistent with a broader pattern in his political career, including his tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014, during which his engagement with the press was similarly limited. The approach reflects a communications strategy that prioritises direct voter contact, particularly through large public events, and relies heavily on television news coverage, social media, and party-aligned outlets to disseminate the Prime Minister’s messaging.
The political context has also shaped the debate. India has experienced periods of heightened tension between the government and sections of the press, with multiple incidents involving the questioning of journalists, raids on media organisations, and regulatory actions against broadcasters. Critics have pointed to these episodes as evidence of a broader pattern of pressure on the press, while the government has maintained that its actions are in accordance with the law and that the media landscape in India remains plural and vibrant.
The opposition INDIA bloc, a coalition of parties opposed to the BJP, has periodically demanded that the Prime Minister hold a press conference, particularly during and after parliamentary sessions. These demands have not resulted in a change in practice.
Analysis
The debate over Modi’s press conferences sits at the intersection of two competing ideas about democratic communication. One view holds that accountability requires the presence of an adversarial press, willing and able to ask difficult questions and demand clear answers. Under this view, the press conference, with its capacity for unscripted exchange, is a vital mechanism, and its absence represents a meaningful reduction in transparency, regardless of how extensive a leader’s other public engagements may be.
The other view holds that direct engagement with citizens, unmediated by journalists, is itself a form of accountability, and that in a media environment shaped by television primetime, social media virality, and partisan commentary, the traditional press conference has become less central to how political leaders communicate with the public.
Both views have merit, and the empirical question — whether citizens are better informed and better served by one model or the other — is difficult to resolve. What is clear is that the two models produce different kinds of information. A press conference creates a public record of questioning and response, including the failures of a leader to answer or the moments when a leader is pressed on uncomfortable facts. Direct outreach, by contrast, is typically shaped entirely by the speaker and is not subject to challenge in the same setting.
For press freedom advocates, the issue is not only about any single leader’s habits but about the broader health of the relationship between the state and the news media. The visibility of the Prime Minister’s communications strategy, including the reach of Mann Ki Baat and the Prime Minister’s social media presence, does not by itself answer the question of whether journalists are able to perform their watchdog function with respect to the office of the Prime Minister.
For the government, the answer, as articulated by Rijiju, is that direct engagement is both more democratic and more effective, and that the absence of a press conference does not imply a lack of transparency.
What to watch next
– Whether the Prime Minister departs from his established practice during a major political event, such as the budget session of Parliament, a national election, or a high-profile diplomatic visit. Past precedent suggests this is unlikely, but the question is periodically re-raised.
– Whether the opposition formally renews its demand for a press conference in Parliament, and whether such a demand results in any procedural or political response.
– Continued assessment of India’s standing in international press freedom indices, including the World Press Freedom Index, and whether the government engages substantively with the criteria used in those assessments.
– The trajectory of regulatory and legal actions involving news organisations, including any developments in pending cases, which will shape the broader environment in which journalism about the Prime Minister and the government is conducted.
Conclusion
Kiren Rijiju’s defence of the Prime Minister’s communications strategy restates a position the government has held for over a decade: that direct engagement with citizens is a sufficient and superior alternative to the traditional press conference. Whether that position is accepted depends on what one believes democratic accountability requires, and on the broader health of the relationship between the Indian state and the news media that covers it. The question of why the Prime Minister does not hold press conferences is unlikely to be settled by any single remark, and is likely to resurface each time a major policy moment passes without an unscripted interaction with the press.
Sources
India Today: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/narendra-modi-press-conferences-kiren-rijiju-direct-public-outreach-2980681-2026-08-26
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Story synopsis gathered from: India Today – India — source
