Samikshya Bureau
During his entire tenure of five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was always criticised for not holding a press conference.
So journalist were quite surprised when they saw Modi holding a joint press conference on Friday at the Bhartiya Janata Party headquarters in New Delhi. However, Modi let them down by diverting all questions to Shah after speaking whatever he had to speak.
“I have come here to thank the people and the media. Through everything in the last five years the people of India have stood by me,’ Modi said. “To take the country forward, we have said a lot of things in the manifesto. We will work on it one by one and bring a new governance culture.”
Taking potshots at the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance led by the Congress, Modi said: “In last two elections, even IPL couldn’t be held. When government is strong, IPL, Ramzaan, school exams, Hanuman Jayanti and other mega events can take place.”
He asserted that after a long time the National Democratic Alliance led by BJP would come to power with an absolute majority for the second consecutive time.
As soon as the press conference was over Twitter was flooded with sarcastic comments about Modi’s “press appearance”. Many comments were accompanied by jokes and memes about Modi’s ‘nervous’ body language during the press conference.
Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “Congratulations Modi Ji. 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!”
“Modiji is so full of Mann ki Baat that he couldn’t understand that a Press Conference also has questions. Even radios have interactive shows nowadays,” Dalit leader and Independent MLA from Gujarat Jignesh Mewani wrote on Twitter.
Some other samples from Twitter:
“Modi as a student attending a Practical Class on “Press Conference” to learn how to sit, talk and answer in a Press Conference without a SCRIPT.”
“Finally Modiji finishes a press conference without a question answer session where Amitt Shaji reaffirmed PM doesn’t have to answer all the question. How beautiful peeeples!”
“Popular opinion: This was not a Press Conference, It’s was a Maun Conference.”
“Btw (by the way) Modi Ji, are u (you) now remote-controlled by Mr. Shah ??? India wants to know…”
“Maybe we all were wrong in thinking that Modi ji is our PM. The real powerhouse seems to be Mr Shah.”
