Modi broke the democratic tradition of asking and answering questions: Congress

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh. File | Photo credit: The Hindu

The Congress on Tuesday (May 19, 2026) targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not taking questions from the media during his visit to Norway.

Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh claimed that PM Modi had violated the democratic tradition of asking questions and answering them.

He drew parallels and claimed that in the last 12 years, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi held 129 press conferences and answered countless unfiltered questions.

The Congress has separately released a list of all the press conferences at which Mr. Gandhi has addressed.

“The whole country witnessed how our ‘teleprompter-jeevi’ PM was seen dodging and running away from a mere question on foreign soil. The whole world saw that the head of state of the world’s largest democracy is not comfortable facing even a single question,” Mr Ramesh said in X’s post in Hindi.

India has been witnessing this for the past 12 years, he said, referring to a journalist in Norway who asked Mr Modi a question during his bilateral meetings in Norway.

“In Indian democracy, the media, the opposition and various heads of state have always followed the democratic tradition of asking questions and answering them. However, in the last 12 years, the Prime Minister has almost broken this tradition,” the Congress leader said.

“Despite this, as the leader of the most prominent opposition party in India and giving voice to the hopes and aspirations of millions of people in the opposition, Mr. Rahul Gandhi faced questions on a wide range of issues, questioned the government and addressed the press,” Ramesh said.

From 2013 to 2025, Mr. Gandhi held 129 press conferences. Moreover, on many occasions, he directly answered countless unfiltered questions, he added.

Published – 19 May 2026 23:37 IST