This Article is From Oct 06, 2014

The Challenges of Covering PM Narendra Modi in US

(Rahul Shrivastava is Senior Editor, Political Affairs at NDTV)

A sigh laced with longing was audible when one of the senior journalists covering PM Narendra Modi's US visit spoke to me in New York. "I am missing Manmohan Singh or a Vajpayee," she said.

Here we were, covering a coveted assignment - Prime Minister Modi's first visit to the true land of opportunities of all kind. The tour, toasted at the high tables of Manhattan and Washington DC, included 50-odd engagements spread over five days. His fasting during this trip consumed gigabytes of air time and sheets of newsprint. The "rock-star" reception and his speech at Madison Square Garden resulted in mass conversion. The "neo-converts" didn't stop at praising him but went on to click the "Follow Modi" link on Twitter and Facebook.

For these and his other engagements - appearing at a Central Park concert, his meetings with Obama, their walk at the Martin Luther King memorial - reporters like us received close to 100 seemingly minute-by-minute alerts by the Press Information Bureau. The press releases were prompt and informative. The media covered him non-stop from his arrival at the JFK airport in New York to his departure from Washington.

There was a lot of news and colour to write, analyse and report.

But still, journalists were left thirsty. The reason lies in Prime Minister Modi's emerging style of dealing with the media.

He arrived on Air India One with only official media and news agency personnel from All India Radio and Doordarshan.

There was no on-board interaction during the Delhi-Frankfurt-New York journey.

When he arrived at his New York hotel, a scrum of reporters in tow, he waded into the cheering NRIs waiting for him, shook their hands. A few TV journalists raised their mikes towards him for a sound byte. He walked away.

Even after his visit to the 9/11 memorial, there was no comment to reporters. Pakistan was planning to raise the Kashmir issue at the United Nations. The 9/11 memorial was the perfect spot to make the PM's stand known - this was where Osama Bin Laden had hurt the US. What better location to bring the focus on terror and Pakistan's role?

But he didn't walk towards the waiting and hoping media.

For most of his engagements, only the media which was travelling with the PM was allowed. There was not even an informal brief chat with journalists. Now Modi is no Manmohan Singh, who was not just a reluctant politician but reluctant to speak to the media. In fact, the BJP in its UPA-bashing, used to quote this as a negative. But Manmohan Singh's foreign trips guaranteed at least two interactions - during the flights there and back. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a charmer. During flights, he would drop in and ask if journalists were well taken care of. Dr Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur used to come together to the media section of Air India One and politely thank everyone.

Modi is not media shy. The official matrix around him is courteous and definitely very efficient. During his US visit, he clearly indicated that the media is needed. Details of each engagement, each event were fed to the media. But nothing more. The PM is defining the limits for the media. His engagement with them will be controlled by him - provider-controlled information, which is filtered and aimed at crafting or adding to an image.

In Brazil, where he had gone to participate in BRICS - his first international multilateral - he greeted all of us who were waiting in the lobby of the hotel with a big smile and quipped "poori mandali aa gayee yahan" (the whole gang has come here). But a TV journalist tried asking a question and he walked away.

The PM's engagement with the media involves rare and extremely careful interactions like the one with Farid Zakaria of CNN before he left for the US visit. It includes no free-for-all press interactions where a Prime Minister is asked policy and strategy questions.

This regulated style has impacted the media in more than one way. The Ministry of External Affairs sets up a media room in the city the PM travels to. During the Vajpayee period, the media room was not just a hub from where news men would file their stories or get logistical details about the PM's itinerary, but it was also where foreign ministers, foreign secretaries and ambassadors would stroll in and do background briefings.

On this US visit, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Ambassador S Jaishankar kept a low profile. The Foreign Minister spoke to journalists just once - when Pakistan's attempt to blame India for the cancelled talks in Islamabad was to be countered.

Foreign trips by the PM used to offer another advantage to travelling journalists - on foreign soil, it used to be easier to get close to the team around the PM and establish good sources. During the PM's Brazil trip, I asked one top honcho on the PM's team for his mobile number. He obliged, but with this rider: "You can have the number, but I will not answer or speak. I will speak only after this five-year term is over."

After returning to India and several post-mortems later, I realised that it's not that the media is really "Missing a Vajpayee or Manmohan" - it's simply a case of getting used to Narendra Modi.

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