Prime Minister Narendra Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi

On June 27, 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the “first ever interview” with a serving PM to a private news channel in India. On May 8, 2014, Narendra Modi, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate gave his first interview to a private English news channel as the PM in waiting. Both were to Times Now, Frankly Speaking.

What a difference two years make.

That May, just before the Lok Sabha election results, Modi was tense, defensive, visibly annoyed by some questions: “I am amazed why Times Now is so interested in protecting this one family (Gandhis),” he commented angrily at one stage.

This June, in an 80-odd minute Q&A, PM Modi gave long, detailed replies; he was calm, supremely self-confident, reflective and sufficiently relaxed to share a laugh or two (“I have a humorous side”) — in other words, prime ministerial and completely unruffled by the questions.

For two very good reasons: Then, he was “completely new to the job” and to New Delhi; now, he is a seasoned, globetrotting head of government who has conversed with presidents and PMs, addressed parliaments and the US Congress, where “by the way” he delivered a “fantastic” “unique” speech, according to his inquisitor.

Ah, the inquisitor. Well, he’s changed too. Two years ago, Arnab Goswami was a journalist interviewing a prospective prime minister with a chequered reputation after the 2002 Gujarat riots. He asked tough questions on Gujarat, communal politics during the election campaign, his “personal vendetta” against the Gandhi family, “Snoopgate”; he pinned him down to a straight answer on “talks and terror” apropos Pakistan. He challenged Modi’s replies, interrupted him — it was a fine interview, in the best traditions of journalism.

On Monday, Goswami was about as hard as melted butter. He asked soft, leading questions, praised the PM fulsomely: “historic speech”, “fantastic”, “unique”, “very aggressive foreign policy”, “pro active approach”, “terrific pace of engagement with Pakistan”, “I think it was a wonderful moment when you were speaking (to the US Congress)”, “the amount of personal interest you have shown in foreign policy, probably none of the previous prime ministers showed the same kind of interest”.

He made sympathetic noises. On NSG: “Were you disappointed that we did not make it?”, “Why is China repeatedly blocking us.despite your personal proactive measures…?” On Parliament: “This question comes to many people’s minds, (is) Prime Minister Narendra Modi being held back from achieving his own objectives because of the non-stop Parliament logjam?” On GST: “You had tried. You had invited former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi here at Race Course Road”. If anything, Goswami was hard on the Congress: He spoke of its corruption, including AgustaWestland.

He supplemented the PM’s replies: On black money: “And you said on 17 February 2015, on this issue that the then law minister is only offering lip service”. He even offered a piece of gentle advice: “You should not lose your sense of humour Mr Prime Minister”.

Modi spelt out his views at great length and Goswami gave him every opportunity to do so — a very good thing because, as he said, everybody wants to “hear your views on a range of subjects”.

However, issues like Parliament, NSG, GST, Pakistan, China, the economy deserved supplementary questions since Modi’s government is after all a “proactive” player in these developing stories. That didn’t happen as the PM went unchallenged on every answer but one — when he asked the media to avoid making “hot heads” into “heroes”. “We don’t make them heroes,” remonstrated Goswami, “we make them villains”.

For 48 hours, Times Now trumpeted the PM’s interview — “top trend for 6 hours”, “a billion on Twitter”, “the biggest interview of 2016”, etc. Frankly speaking, it was a “very interesting” interview; it would have been a far superior piece of journalism had the Goswami of 2014 encountered the Modi of 2016.

As it was, it looked as if there were two interviews on Monday: One with Modi, the other with Goswami — for a job as his spokesperson.

(This article first appeared in the print edition under the headline ‘Telescope: Two interviews’)

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