India's Modi meets press at White House — and takes rare questions

Narendra Modi has done something very unusual at the White House — he took questions from journalists.

It's a rare occurrence for the Indian prime minister who avoids unscripted moments and has presided over a steady decline in press freedom in his country.

The news conference on Thursday was more limited than the kind that US presidents usually hold with foreign leaders, but even that wasn't easy to arrange with Modi.

Indian officials agreed to the event only the day before, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations.

Administration officials told Modi's advisers that taking questions from the media was a standard part of how White House state visits are conducted, the person said.

An Indian reporter asked about addressing the climate crisis, and an American reporter pressed Modi on human rights concerns — a particularly delicate topic as the United States seeks closer ties with India as a bulwark against China's influence in the region.

Modi defended India by saying "democracy runs in our veins" and insisting that there is "absolutely no space for discrimination."

"Our Constitution and our government, and we have proved democracy can deliver. When I say deliver — caste, creed, religion, gender, there is no space for any discrimination [in my government]," Modi told reporters.

Dozens of protesters gathered near the White House on Thursday.

"Modi should think why that was the first question asked to him in the press briefing. It's obvious to all there is rights abuse in India," said Ajit Sahi, a protester and advocacy director at the Indian American Muslim Council.

"Modi's comments [that there is no religious discrimination by his government] is a complete lie. India has become a black-hole for religious minorities," said Raqib Hameed Naik, the founder of Hindutva Watch, a group that monitors reports of attacks on Indian minorities.

India's importance for the US to counter China and the economic ties between the countries make it difficult for Washington to criticise human rights in the world's largest democracy, political analysts said.

Although Modi, who is 72, has granted sporadic interviews since becoming India's leader nine years ago, he has never held a solo press conference.

Sometimes when asked questions he'll defer to others on stage with him.

Modi also tends to keep reporters at a distance during overseas trips, such as last year in Germany, when the two countries announced a clean energy deal.

The Indian delegation had insisted then that no press conference be held, according to a German official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity.

However, Modi has loosened up a little in the company of American counterparts.

Eight years ago, when president Barack Obama visited India, Modi answered questions from two reporters, including one from The Associated Press.

'Legendary silences'

Modi is active on social media, where hundreds of millions follow him, hosts a monthly radio program where he directly connects with listeners, and often makes big speeches.

He uses these platforms to highlight government programmes, inaugurate infrastructure projects and express condolences when an accident or tragedy strikes.

But Modi has often remained silent on polarising incidents, including when religious minorities have faced attacks by Hindu extremists.

He has also not commented on current ethnic violence roiling India's remote northeast, where at least 100 people have died since May and reportedly 250 churches have been burned by mobs.

"His silences are legendary – he has never asked people to refrain from sectarian violence," said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of a Modi biography.

He suggested that Modi should not get much credit for any press conference in Washington if only a few questions were allowed.

Modi's action, Mukhopadhyay said, "allows him to project an image as a more reasonable and democratic leader abroad, while he continues to evade press conferences at home, where he has scant regard for press freedom."

Dangerous countries for media

The decline in press freedom didn't start with Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, but it's increased.

The country fell eleven places, to 160 out of 180 countries, in this year’s Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.

The organisation cited violence against journalists and a partisan media landscape as reasons that "press freedom is in crisis in the world’s largest democracy."

"With an average of three or four journalists killed in connection with their work every year, India is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for media," the report said.

India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar dismissed the report's claims at an event last month.

In recent years, journalists have been arrested and some are stopped from travelling abroad. Dozens are facing criminal prosecution, including for sedition.

At the same time, the government has introduced sweeping regulatory laws for social media companies that give it more power to police online content.

Obama on Indian minorities

A number of media outlets critical of Modi have also been subjected to tax searches, most recently the BBC after it aired a documentary that examined the prime minister's role in 2002 anti-Muslim riots in the western state of Gujarat, where he was chief minister at the time.

More than 1,000 people were killed in the violence. Modi has denied allegations that authorities under his watch allowed and even encouraged the bloodshed, and India's Supreme Court said it found no evidence to prosecute him.

The two-part BBC programme drew an immediate backlash from the Indian government, which invoked emergency powers under its information technology laws to block it from being shown in the country.

Social media platforms, including Twitter and YouTube, also complied with government requests to remove links to the documentary.

India has slid from 140th in the World Press Freedom Index in 2014 to 161st this year, its lowest point, while also leading the list for the highest number of internet shutdowns globally for five consecutive years.

The UN human rights office described a 2019 citizenship law as "fundamentally discriminatory" for excluding Muslim migrants. Critics have pointed to anti-conversion legislation that challenged the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief and the revoking of India-administered Kashmir's special status in 2019 as well.

There has also been demolition of properties owned by Muslims in the name of removing illegal construction; and a ban on wearing the hijab in classrooms in Karnataka when the BJP was in power in that state.

"The protection of the Muslim minority in a majority Hindu India, that is something worth mentioning," former US president Barack Obama, whom Modi calls a close friend, told CNN in an interview aired on Thursday.

"If you do not protect the rights of ethnic minorities in India, then there is a strong possibility that India at some point starts pulling apart," Obama said of what he would have told Modi now.