Over the weekend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi suddenly became even more visible on Indian television screens by making appearances on not one but two different new channels for hour-long interviews. Days before he heads off to Davos for the World Economic Forum and with the last full budget of his five-year tenure expected in 10 days, Modi spoke about a number of issues from simultaneous elections to how he would rather not say anything about the Supreme Court crisis.

The anchors who interviewed him are, on a nightly basis, loud, feisty hosts of primetime debates, always happy to interrupt a guest in order to make a point. But both TimesNow and Zee News happen to reflect a worldview that more or less matches with whatever the Bharatiya Janata Party considers its opinion at any given time. And so over the interviews on Saturday and Sunday, the classic pugilism of primetime gave way to questions about how Modi manages to make friends so easily and where he gets his energy from.


Both of those were from Zee News’ Sudhir Chaudhary. TimesNow was a little more direct but still mostly just nudged Modi towards his talking points – at one point anchor Navika Kumar simply said “employment and farmers” before the prime minister answered. Kumar did manage to ask one truly shocking question, asking Modi what he thinks about some leaders going abroad and telling the diaspora that things are not well in India – forgetting or ignoring the fact that Modi did the same early on in his tenure.

Overall, the interviews did not do much other than get the prime minister some comfortable prime time slots that were uncharacteristically tepid, with little in the way of newsworthy points being made. For the entire TimesNow interview, go here, and to watch the Zee News interview, see this.

Below, a selection of tough questions from the two interviews, where the answers were predictable enough that we have not included them:

Zee News’ Sudhir Chaudhary

“Between when you became prime minister in 2014, and now in 2018, do you see some difference in India’s status when you go to international summits?”

“We have seen that before this, in summits like like Davos or SAARC or G20, it seemed like a diplomatic exercise. Our neta went, did a diplomatic exercise and a photo was taken. When we take you, and this is something your critics don’t like, it seems like friendship. You hug them, put your hand on their shoulder and talk, then that photo is printed. Based on that people attack you also, but that is your style that you immediately make friends. Take Netanyahu, the friendship between you was like we were watching a film in which two friends have a pukka friendship. So your unique style of diplomacy, how do you connect so quickly with a person who is not from this country, who doesn’t speak your language, who probably has not known you for too long?”



“After you came to power, a new tradition started that GDP growth rate, how it’s moving. I remember that before that, three-four years ago, the people didn’t even know what the GDP growth rate was. Now people follow it like the Sensex, every three months seeing how much it’s gone up and down. And based on that every three months you are questioned. And if it is not as much as you promised, then the attacks start. Isn’t this a new sort of tradition?”

“I was doing a lot of research while preparing for this interview, and I was thinking about this new world order, what is the new world order? So I found a new thing, which is referred to as PTM – Putin Trump Modi. This is the New World Order?”

“Do you have as much enthusiasm today as you did in 2014? It’s now 2018, sometimes people lose their enthusiasm while working?”

“Do you think you’re on the right track?”

“You live like a fakir, call yourself a fakir and your family is also large, 1.25 crore people. You don’t take leave, and I’ve heard that when you go abroad you travel at night so you don’t have to stop on the way, you sleep on the plane itself. At this age, how do you have so much energy? Because at this age anyone else can’t even imagine it. Today your energy is such that a young Indian would be ashamed.”



TimesNow’s Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar