Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the political class is now under increased media scrutiny.

New Delhi: Issues which earlier did not find a place even in a gossip column of newspapers have now become breaking news, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today while underlining that the political class is now under increased media scrutiny.

"I belong to the community (of politicians) which is under scrutiny for 24 hours," the Prime Minister said addressing a conference of High Court Chief Justices and Chief Ministers in New Delhi.

While suggesting that judges are seldom criticised, he said "we (politicians) have to answer to people after every five years... The community (of politicians), from which we come, has got a lot of bad name."

Modi, who was talking about the need for the Judiciary to have an internal mechanism of "self-assessment", gave the example of how it is done in the case of political class and Executive.

"Even being in that community (of politicians), we have imposed checks on us," he said citing the Election Commission, RTI and Lokpal as institutions that keep an eye on the political class.

"How much good a person may be, if the institutional network is not good, there is a possibility of degradation. Parents keep money under lock and key in homes. They do not do it to keep away from thieves. Thieves can take away the box itself. They do it so that the habits of children are not spoilt. This is necessary for us also," the prime minister said.

PTI