[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"

[sound1]

> 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.

People have voted and they are okay with his decisions. He got more votes than his previous elections

> 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.

Who decides that? Only elections can. Let's see what happens in the next general elections

> "With great power comes great responsibility"

Yes, CBI had to take some unpopular decisions. But they did

[throwaway384629]

>> People have voted and they are okay with his decisions. He got more votes than his previous elections

>> Who decides that? Only elections can. Let's see what happens in the next general elections

Seems like we have went full circle. So I am pasting my comment again.

"The Nazi Party’s meteoric rise to power began in 1930, when it attained 107 seats in Germany’s parliament, the Reichstag. In July 1932, the Nazi Party became the largest political party in the Reichstag with 230 representatives" Sounds very similar, but above is from Holocaust encyclopedia. [1]

>> Yes, CBI had to take some unpopular decisions. But they did

CBI is BJP and BJP is CBI. [2]

[1] https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-r...

[2] https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/349075193714577408