Modi podcast masterclass in setting narrative: Derek O'Brien

"New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent podcast with a "friendly interviewer" was a "masterclass" in how to attempt to set a narrative, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said on Wednesday.

In a blogpost published on Wednesday, the TMC Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Party leader picked up key words from the podcast and said Modi shared how he skipped a family wedding to take care of a fasting "Swamiji", but he does not get time to see fasting farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal. 

"The Prime Minister's podcast to a friendly interviewer was a master class in how to attempt to set a narrative. Soft questions. No follow-ups," O'Brien said.  In a podcast with American computer scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman, Modi talked about a range of issues, and said his early life was spent in extreme poverty.

Modi also highlighted the influence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on his life, and recalled how he spent time roaming in the Himalayas in his younger days and met great ascetics.  "The Prime Minister gave a ten minute answer on the podcast where he explained how he sought the higher purpose of living – testing his bodily strength in that pursuit. All very noble," O'Brien said.

"Now the reality: between 2014 and 2023, 736 people died cleaning sewers and septic tanks. Sixty-seven lakh children go without food every day. Thirty farmers commit suicide every day," the TMC leader said.

"The Prime Minister shared that, as a child, he chose to skip a family wedding to take care of a Swamiji who was on fast. Very thoughtful... farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal has been on a hunger strike for over 100 days demanding MSP and other rights for farmers. Yet, the Prime Minister has not met him," he said.  O'Brien said the organisation was banned by then home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi."

"While banning RSS, Sardar Patel had famously said, 'Undesirable and even dangerous activities have been carried out by members of the Sangh. It has been found that in several parts of the country, individual members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have indulged in acts of violence involving arson, robbery, dacoity, and murder and have collected illicit arms and ammunition'," the TMC leader said.  He also said when Mahatma Gandhi initiated the Dandi March and the Quit India Movement, RSS founder K B Hedgewar declared that the organisation would not take part.  Modi told the interviewer that criticism is the soul of democracy, but how many press conferences has he addressed since coming to power in 2014, the TMC leader asked.

"Since 2014, the Prime Minister has not answered even a single parliamentary question under his name. No question has been balloted for the Prime Minister since 2016 in Rajya Sabha and since 2019 in Lok Sabha," he said.

"Under his watch, critics and activists have been arrested under laws like UAPA. Conviction rate, though, of only 2.54 percent between 2014 and 2022," he said, mentioning Siddique Kappan, Stan Swamy and Umar Khalid, who have all been jailed under the UAPA. Swamy passed away while awaiting bail.

While the prime minister had said in the podcast that the discourse around the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat was an attempt to create a false narrative, the TMC leader said that in April 2004, the Supreme Court had observed, "Modi was like a modern day Nero who looks the other side when helpless children and innocent women are burned." The TMC leader added, "1,000 were killed, 223 more people reported missing and another 2,500 injured... Bilkis Bano's rapists were even released by the Gujarat Government."

In the more than three-hour-long interaction with Lex Fridman, Modi had touched on various aspects of his life journey, praising the Hindutva organisation RSS for instilling patriotic values in him, lauding Mahatma Gandhi's legacy and describing himself as a peacemaker who nudged both Russian and Ukrainian leaders to come to the negotiating table.