[throwaway384629]

Yes, history has shown that it can go that way. We all have to stay alert and raise an alarm when a democratically elected government starts trying to manipulate four pillars of Democracy: Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and Press.

[sound1]

Do you disagree if I say that the United States is one of the best functioning democracies (may not be perfect )? They have elected the same president consecutively. There may be many others as well, and nobody became Nazi.

[throwaway384629]

I agree with you that United States is much better functioning democracy. I think this is because they have much better checks & balances than India. Their legal, press and judiciary structure is also different than India.

Just one example here:

President Obama has done 163 press conferences in 8 years, and all the data is public for everyone to see. [1]

While PM Modi in the same amount of time did 1 (?) press conference. And has never answered any question even in that one. There is no data available on press conferences as a reply to RTI. [2] [3] [4]

Press is one important pillar of democracy. Where is democracy if you are not answering to people and only playing one sided scripted monologue.

[1] https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/presidential...

[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/india-election-modi/at-his-f...

[3] https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/rti-pmo-pm-narendra-mo...

[4] https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/opinion/why-hasnt-pm-mod...

[sound1]

I don't get it, are you trying to measure the performance of the current indian government by the number of press conferences held? Governments operate in completely different ways. What you read in papers is from the political parties.

[throwaway384629]

IMHO, you are the one who started comparing India Democracy with United States.

Also, I can ignore the papers for a moment. Can you tell me how many unscripted press conferences PM Modi did in last 8 years? Please don't count 1-1 interviews to Movie stars, or 1-1 scripted meetings in closed tv studios. I am asking for any public press conferenced where he is taking questions from 5-6 journalists form different organizations. The one hour radio monolog also does not count as a press conference.

To know why open press conferences are important for a democracy, you can read more here:

https://www.principlesofdemocracy.org/government-dem

[sound1]

The government talks through its official channels, such as cabinet ministers, spokespersons and secretaries, and also Prime minister. What makes you think the Foreign/Finance/Defence/Home ministry statement is any less than a statement from PM himself?

[throwaway384629]

Yes, there should be channels and delegation. But PM is also answerable to people and should appear to take questions from press. Giving a statement is not same as answering open questions from press.

United States also have different official channels and they all do their thing on their level. But that does not mean that PM/President gets a free run.

"With great power comes great responsibility"