Narendra Modi on Friday thanked journalists for not asking him questions during his term as the country’s prime minister for the last five years. Speaking to ABP News, Modi said that he considered this (journalists not asking questions) as his ‘good luck.’

When asked what he thought of his performance in the last 60 months as compared to the 60 years of governance by the Congress, Modi said, “As far as the question of 60 years and 60 months is concerned, I would like to say that the country has observed that a prime minister has continuously worked and no one has asked any questions. Even you guys don’t ask me any questions and I consider this as my saubhagya (good luck).”

Modi has often faced accusations for stifling free press and not encouraging unscripted interviews. He’s believed to be the first prime minister, who has never held a single press conference during his entire tenure.

Last year, three journalists had to lose their job in ABP News allegedly because they were deemed to be too critical of the Modi government.

You can read the video blog by Rifat Jawaid on the turmoil in ABP News last year below.

A number of journalists working for other media outlets too have had to lose their jobs allegedly at the behest of the Centre’s Modi government. In almost all cases, journalists who were sacked were either deemed to be critical of Modi or had dared to work on stories that had the potential to cause embarrassment to him and his party.