On Biden watch, Modi to take question – 1st in 9 years

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By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, June 22: The White House correspondents have claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will finally take question during the joint presser with U.S President Joe Biden. Quoting the unnamed officials, it has been stated that Indian diplomats agreed to allow just one question after a marathon negotiation.

Holding presser is a norm for the U.S. President, while press conferences are regularly held during the state visit of the foreign dignitaries. However, Modi doesn’t take questions, as he only addresses press.

Jeremy Diamond, a White House correspondent for CNN, tweeted: “Biden and Modi will take questions at a joint news conference tomorrow – but only after delicate negotiations… Indian officials initially balked at the WH (White House) insistence that the two leaders participate in a joint news conference.”

He further claimed that hard negotiations looked at various options, including Biden staying on to take questions and even the idea that two questions each be taken. But finally, he stated, it was agreed that one question each will be asked.

While it’s a norm for the U.S. leadership to take questions from the press, Modi in the last nine years of his tenure as the prime minister has not taken a single question from the press during pressers with the foreign dignitaries. The usual format in New Delhi is that the prime minister and the visiting dignitaries will make statements and close the press conferences.

Modi also has not held any standalone press conferences, which had been regular practice in the past, with former prime ministers even holding pressers onboard the flight while returning from foreign tours. Modi’s predecessor Manmohan Singh was the last to hold a press conference as the prime minister during which he had taken several questions without the media advisors deciding on who will ask question.

However, reports suggest that the Indian diplomatic officials will decide the scribe who is going to ask the lone question to Modi in the joint presser with Biden.

Yet, Modi is a prominent face in the Indian media, as he gives interviews, to television and print, in the format of questions sent beforehand to the Prime Minister’s Office.