On Friday evening, social media was awash with excitement when it was suddenly announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would address the first press conference of his five-year term at the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters in Delhi. Television channels interrupted their regular programming to broadcast the event live. After having faced intense criticism for only granting softball interviews to sympathetic journalists, it seemed like Modi was finally going to hold himself open to rigorous questioning.

What an anti-climax it turned out to be.

At the event, Modi spoke to the assembled journalists about the election campaign and his party’s prospects in the Lok Sabha 2019 polls – but didn’t answer any questions. “It is not necessary for the prime minister to answer every question of yours,” declared BJP president Amit Shah who sat next to Modi at the event.

Shah then proceeded to address all the queries from the assembled journalists. This, naturally, was the cause for mirth and outrage on Twitter.

Modi's "Press Conference" is classic "Acche Din".



He raised expectations, kept India waiting and never delivered... — Varun Santhosh (@santvarun) May 17, 2019

Here is a time lapse video of Q&A session of PM Modi's first Press Conference in 5 years. He sat there for 17 minutes, without answering a single question! 😂



Omg! He really cannot answer without being tutored in writing. 🤭😭🤣 pic.twitter.com/GB92NAc01B — Gaurav Pandhi गौरव पांधी (@GauravPandhi) May 17, 2019

Breaking: Prime Minister Narendra Modi gives speech; BJP President Amit Shah holds press conference. — Somesh Jha (@someshjha7) May 17, 2019

Modi is basically attending Amit Shah's press conference? — Manisha Pande (@MnshaP) May 17, 2019

One user alluded to a comment Modi had made about his predecessor. Manmohan Singh, in 2017. “So many scams took place during all this time, but he got no stain on him,” Modi had declared in Parliament. “Only he knows the art of bathing in the bathroom wearing a raincoat.”

At least, Modi can just make a 'Please like, share this video and subscribe to BJP's channel' appeal at the end? Why so silent? — Abhishek Baxiابھیشیک ‏‎‎ अभिषेक (@baxiabhishek) May 17, 2019

Even Congress President Rahul Gandhi got into the act.

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! 👍 — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 17, 2019

Other users were more pointed.

Journalist Prem Panicker made a reference to Modi’s recent interview with News Nation, in which the questions appeared to have been given to him beforehand.

An emperor, once, had no clothes.



This one, here, has no prepared script. So... https://t.co/H7YGtikAQH — Prem Panicker (@prempanicker) May 17, 2019

Kashmiri politician Omar Abdullah suggested that the journalists at the event had been carefully picked to ensure that there would be no hostile questions.

Amit Shah doesn’t forget to thank the embedded BJP workers disguised as journalists. https://t.co/MsSOpi0nDw — Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) May 17, 2019

Congress strategist Amitabh Dubey took the opportunity to contrast the Modi event with a press conference by Rahul Gandhi, which took place at the same time.