10 Questions Times Now and Zee News Could’ve Asked PM Modi Instead

What the nation needs to know, but has no way of knowing, as nobody is asking the right questions.

In the last three years as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has not held a single news conference, instead choosing to limit his rare media interactions to print and television interviews only. Over the weekend, however, Prime Minister Modi sat down with Zee New’s Sudhir Chaudhary and Times Now’s Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar.

However, the list of questions left much to be desired, seeing as they did, range from psycho-analysing the opposition to GST and demonetisation (“Why is the domestic constituency not convinced about GST and demonetisation”) to inviting self-congratulatory notes about being the first prime minister since 1991 to address the Davos Plenary and an “extremely personal question” about the prime minister’s “sense of loss” at the Rajya Sabha’s unwillingness to pass the Triple Talaq bill.

However, there are some serious questions facing the country today that we could do with a response to.

Question 1: Aadhaar

In April 2014, you tweeted on Aadhaar, “Neither the team that I met, nor PM could answer my Qs on security threat it can pose. There is no vision, only political gimmick.”

With a constant push for Aadhaar-linked schemes, what steps have your govt taken so far to ensure a secure Aadhaar database?

Question 2: Demonetisation and Black Money

RBI report states that 99 percent of banned notes were returned to the banks, indicating that the fight against black money is far from over. What next?

Question 3: Foreign Direct Investment

In December 2012, you tweeted “Congress is giving nation to foreigners. Most parties opposed FDI but due to sword of CBI, some didn't vote and Cong won through back door!”

Earlier this month, your Union Cabinet announced 49 percent FDI in aviation and 100 percent FDI in single-brand retail under the automatic route.

What informed your decisions on increasing FDI in the five years since 2012?

Question 4: Goods & Services Tax

What is the government’s reasoning for retaining the invoice-matching feature of the GST? If a genuine businessman pays tax on all his sales and seeks the refund against his purchases, he’s told to wait till such time the retailer does not file his returns and taxes. Why should the genuine tax payer be penalised for the government’s inability to catch the dodger?

Question 5: Following Twitter Trolls

In February 2017, TMC MP Derek o’ Brien told the Rajya Sabha, “Twenty-six Twitter handles that give out rape threats, communal threats, are followed by the prime minister of India”. Furthermore, following the murder of Gauri Lankesh, Nikhil Dadhich, an individual you follow on Twitter, abused the slain journalist.

Don’t you think following trolls sends a wrong message to an already vitiated online political atmosphere?

Question 6: Karni Sena

Despite the Supreme Court’s refusal to ban ‘Padmaavat’, four state chief ministers have refused to allow the film to be screened in their states. In doing so, do you think they are allowing Karni Sena to set the political agenda for your party’s chief ministers?

Question 7: Beef Ban

Do you have an ideological position on the consumption of beef or do you believe it should be a matter of personal choice? Also, what explains the BJP’s resolve in implementing the beef ban in Maharashtra, but a seemingly relaxed attitude in a poll-bound state like Meghalaya?

Question 8: Conspiracy Theories

While campaigning you alleged that the former Vice-President Hamid Ansari and former PM Dr Manmohan Singh and the Congress party was conspiring with Pakistan to plot your and the BJP’s downfall in your home state. Later, however, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, told Parliament that you did not mean to question Dr Singh’s or Mr Hamid Ansari’s commitment to the nation. What did you mean then?

Question 9: Near-loss in Gujarat

The BJP has been reduced to 99 seats in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly, your party’s worst faring since coming to power in the state in 1995. The Congress has termed it a near-loss for you in your home state. What, in your opinion, led to the far-reduced victory margin in the election last December?

Question 10: Vikas vs Hindutva

In the run-up to the Gujarat election, some of the BJP’s star campaigners deserted the vikas pitch and resorted to Hindutva. UP CM Yogi Adityanath even boasted about the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Is this an admission that the appeal of the development card that helped the BJP win in 2014 is now waning?