Opposition rejects PM Modi’s PTI interview as ‘scripted PR’

New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday dismissed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interview with Press Trust of India as “not an interview at all,” labelling it a “carefully scripted” and “desperate public relations exercise.”

General secretary Jairam Ramesh accused the PM—whom he described as “under siege” over an alleged U.S. trade deal surrender—of relying on “headline management” with “Modi-style one-liners that mean little in reality.” He charged Modi with diverting from the “betrayal” of lakhs of farmers and other “capitulations,” declaring, “Pradhan Mantri jhuke bhi hain, aur thake bhi hain (Prime Minister has surrendered and is tired).”

Ramesh called the Union Budget a “damp squib” showing “intellectual exhaustion,” noting negative market reactions and investor disappointment—prompting the interview a fortnight post-Budget and amid parliamentary criticism. Modi had described the Budget as a “we are ready” moment of preparation, not compulsion.

CPI general secretary D. Raja termed Modi’s remarks a “mockery of the toiling masses” in unprecedented distress, urging him to “stop this rhetoric” and address the nation’s “micro-realities” realistically.

Trinamool Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien quipped, “More hollow words from PM Modi, aka Teleprompter Tycoon, who runs away from speaking on the floor of Parliament.”