By TRH Op-Ed Desk
Political analyst Manish Anand questions why PM Modi avoids press conferences abroad, citing declining Parliament attendance and a growing accountability gap.
New Delhi, July 13, 2026 — Questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reluctance to hold press conferences during foreign trips are gaining traction, after journalists in both Norway and New Zealand publicly pressed India’s foreign ministry on the issue, according to geopolitics analyst Manish Anand on his show The Raisina Hills.
Anand said a Norwegian journalist first raised the question directly — pointing out that Norway is regarded as one of the world’s freest-press countries and asking whether Modi would take questions there. The query, he noted, triggered significant backlash.
A similar question resurfaced at a briefing in New Zealand, where a reporter asked India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson directly why the prime minister does not hold press conferences.
The ministry’s answer: rural voters prefer “direct” communication
According to Anand, the MEA’s response was that India’s largest voting bloc — rural voters — prefer direct, unmediated communication and dislike being “talked down to” through intermediaries. Modi, in this framing, chooses to speak straight to his supporters rather than through journalists, primarily via his monthly radio address, Mann Ki Baat, and social media posts.
Anand pushed back on that explanation, contrasting it with how other world leaders operate. “Talking down to them, they don’t like it,” he said, summarizing the ministry’s position — before noting that US President Donald Trump engages journalists daily, and that heads of state in Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand — all recent stops on Modi’s own tour — routinely take pointed questions from reporters.
The teleprompter photos raising eyebrows
Anand also flagged a recurring visual from Modi’s foreign trips: photographs showing the prime minister speaking with the aid of a teleprompter. He argued this is unusual for a head of government and stands in contrast to India’s own past leaders — including Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee — whom he says were never seen relying on a teleprompter for speeches abroad in the same way.
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A parliament he rarely visits
Beyond the press, Anand pointed to declining attendance in Parliament as a second accountability gap. He said Modi’s presence in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha has thinned steadily over his 12 years in office, appearing now mostly on special occasions — a shift from predecessors like Vajpayee and Singh, who were consistently present to hear debates and questions during sessions.
“So who does he answer to?”
Anand’s core argument: with no regular press conferences, minimal parliamentary presence, and communication channels —Mann Ki Baat, social media posts, brief scripted remarks — that run one way only, there is no functioning forum for direct questions to reach the prime minister. He listed a string of live issues he said deserve answers, including farmer protests over land acquisition in Gujarat, a sit-in at Jantar Mantar, environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike, post-election political violence in West Bengal, and claims that the Right to Information Act has been diluted.
Without official responses, Anand warned, a “vacuum of accountability” opens up — one that speculation and rumour tend to fill faster than facts.
The Finland comparison
To illustrate what real press access looks like, Anand cited a widely circulated moment involving Finland’s former prime minister, Sanna Marin, who was asked point-blank by reporters whether she had used drugs after a video of her dancing at a party went viral. He noted she answered calmly and directly — the kind of exchange, he argued, that keeps democratic accountability functioning.
The bottom line, per Anand
“This is not something to be proud of,” Anand said of Modi’s press-conference avoidance, calling it a serious concern for Indian democracy rather than a neutral stylistic choice — arguing that two-way communication, not monologue, is what parliamentary accountability actually requires.
(This piece reports commentary and opinions expressed by Manish Anand on his show The Raisina Hills. The views attributed to Anand are his own analysis.)
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