Prefer one-on-one meetings with reporters, says Modi

Responding to complaints on the lack of media interaction with the PMO, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday responded that his style was to interact with journalists at an individual level directly rather than through reportage and articles. “By interacting directly, one gets information, gets to hear about things that reporters cannot report and also a vision, which is very valuable,” he said at an interaction with media owners, editors and reporters here on the occasion of Diwali.

After setting a friendly tone in his brief remarks to the gathering, Mr. Modi intermingled freely with the 200-odd men and women reporters, shaking hands with each one and obliging many with selfies. He addressed those he was familiar with by name and was equally affable with those who he met for the first time. In a friendly gesture, he took the camera of the BJP’s official photographer, Ajay, and clicked the cameraman’s photo instead.

Sharing the dais with him were the host of the event and party president Amit Shah, union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Prakash Javadekar and party general secretary J.P. Nadda. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley left early as he had a meeting but other ministers stayed back and interacted with the media over lunch.