Interviews of Narendra Modi are like city buses. There is not one for ages, and then two come along at the same time.
The first with the journalist-academic and undisguised Modi shill, Madhu Kishwar, for India News and NewsX; and the other for the Mukesh Ambani-owned ETV Rajasthan.
In the Indian Express, Shailaja Bajpai compares the Modi powwows with Rahul Gandhi‘s faceoff with Arnab Goswami for Times Now:
“The media is either unwilling or unable to ask Modi penetrative questions. In these two interviews, he swatted away softball questions with a hard bat. Perhaps he only agreed to be interviewed on condition that he not be asked uncomfortable questions.
“If you compare this interview with Rahul’s on Times Now, the contrast is stark: Rahul was asked at least some hard-hitting questions, cornered on issues like the 1984 Sikh riots, although he was allowed to have his say on his pet themes.
“In Modi’s case, he simply had his way throughout. Not once was anything he said challenged. It made for poor TV. If he continues to give soft interviews, they will be viewed as plugs for him — another strategy in the marketing of Modi.”
Read the full review: How Modi faced the nation
***
IJR 
Nothing that appears in the media about Modi carries conviction because it is either unadulterated admiration or uncritical condemnation. If Modi pays the media for favourable coverage, his critics pay the media for negative reporting. Either way, it is the media that benefits from Modi politics.
Krishnamoorty.
It is not that Modi has not fielded tough questions. Remember the India Today Conclave? It was a free-for-all with questions hurled from all corners. Is there any tough question which remains to be asked now? Modi has come out unscathed so far. Rahul has not been asked even 5 per cent of what Modi has faced over the last 12 years. The comparison is silly!
CAN THE MEDIA ASK TOUGH QUESTIONS TO SONIA GANDHI? They didn’t ask Nehru either. The one man who asked him or heckled him was G.K.Reddy, Blitz correspondent who later became bureau chief of the Hindu. The Indian media always crawl. They have lost the habit of walking upright.