Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a joint press statement along with United States of America President Donald Trump today. Interestingly, journalists could not ask questions of the two leaders in the press conference. This should, however, not come as a surprise. A report in The Hindu by its Washington-based correspondent Varghese George had indicated that Modi and Trump would read out a brief statement one after the other but they would not take questions from the media. According to the report, the decision to not take questions was apparently taken at the “behest of India”. When pointed out that a person of Modi’s stature usually takes questions, a senior White House official is quoted in the report to state, “I don’t want to comment on that. That is the preference of the leaders. Don’t read too much into it.”