By Sushil Kutty
Only the best for the best. And as far as marquee political interviews go, that would be India-born Canadian Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar’s interview of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. At No.2 is ANI editor-in-chief Smitha Prakash, whose interview with EAM S. Jaishankar was the talk of the airwaves for all of last week.
And like actor Kumar, Smitha has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too. Not once, but twice. The first time in 2019, and the second time in 2022. Smitha Prakash suits the Prime Minister fine because Modi seldom faces boisterous crowds of journalists. He has never held a press conference. There could always be the one odd hack who will persist and ask a wrong question that will make the Prime Minister gulp ‘Oh, My God!’
Why take the risk? There’s always Smitha Prakash! In her EAM interview, Prakash asked Jaishankar how was it, his move from bureaucrat to minister, perhaps the toughest question any external affairs minister could have fielded in these times of a world gripped in war and warmongering with India being called to intervene?
The ANI interview of the EAM, in fact, stands out for the toughest questions S Jaishankar has faced in 40 years of boring babudom and four years of traipsing around the world in the service of India in foreign climes? Fact is, Smitha Prakash’s 2019 interview of PM Modi wasn’t the mushy-mushy ‘Modi The Mango Question’ interview that actor Akshay Kumar had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As for the External Affairs Minister, he is by far more erudite than the one who cannot be named! And, let’s confess, Smitha Prakash’s interview with S. Jaishankar would in time become the go-to interview for students of Journalism.
In 2019, interviewing Modi, Smitha Prakash must not have had any intentions to let off Modi so easily except that there must have been a reason for her to let him off so easily! And that must be why Congress leader Rahul Gandhi thought there wasn’t a more grovelling interview in the history of interviews than “Smitha Interviews Modi”.
Of course, Rahul Gandhi was no friend of Modi. And, definitely, Prakash’s toughest questions to Modi in 2019 must have sounded like two children at play to Rahul Gandhi. It is another matter that Rahul Gandhi called Prakash a “pliable journalist”. Being Rahul, he must not have heard of LK Advani’s gem “asked to bend, the media crawled”.
In fact, Prakash was better prepared when she interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi than when she exchanged questions for answers with Jaishankar. But that was because there were low-hanging questions for the asking in 2019, such as the then recent BJP loss in five states, the upcoming 2019 elections, and questions on demonetisation, GST as also the one about the corrupt being allowed to escape the country scot-free.
Smitha Prakash also did not spare Modi on the slew of cow-linked lynching. But compared to actor Kumar’s interview of the Prime Minister even a cub reporter would have come on top. Prakash should have ‘named and shamed’ the wrongdoers, instead she was ‘named and shamed’. She should have got the benefit of doubt as shooting the messenger isn’t right. And what about the freedom of the Press, why was the Editors Guild sleeping on the job?
The answers can wait. Before that this little tidbit: Smitha Prakash is the go-to journalist for the Modi Government. It’s an impression that follows her. She fills in her free hours defending the BJP and the Modi government in primetime TV debates. In any case, Prakash cannot be blamed. Blame it on the zeitgeist of the years since 2014 when media have formed into pro-Modi and con-Modi enclaves.
Smitha Prakash represents the ‘Godi Media’ that allegedly has the Modi Government’s back, and vice versa though Smitha Prakash tries hard not to give the impression that she’s part of the media fraternity that serves the interests of the Modi government, and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The question is, what would Smitha Prakash get out of going soft on the Modi government; much like what does the so-called “Pidi media”, get from attacking the very essence of the Modi ecosystem? Would somebody not ‘Godi Media’ have done a tougher interview with EAM S. Jaishankar than the one which concentrated on unearthing his family tree, roots and all!
Smitha Prakash spent upward of an hour listening to the EAM glorifying his family-history in great terms while going to great detail to cast lousily camouflaged and unverified aspersions on Indira and Rajiv Gandhi for the alleged raw deal the two gave to members of the most bureaucratically-qualified family India has produced since the ‘Navrathnas’ of Akbar’s court.
Prakash should have questioned the EAM, asked him if he still carried a grudge against the Gandhi family? Instead, she gave Jaishankar a solemn ear to talk of his goal to be the “best foreign secretary” after being the best this and best that. Jaishankar was Foreign Secretary from January 2015 to January 2018.
Jaishankar was also ambassador in China and in the United States, two plum postings every IFS officer coveted. But Smitha’s interview did not get a China headline out of the EAM! This when pinning down the Modi government on China at a time when China was salami-slicing India at the LAC would have made all the difference between a good interview and a great interview!
Nevertheless, Smitha Prakash should get the Pulitzer for compelling the EAM to ‘out’ his most inner thoughts regarding his family and regarding the Modi government, which he joined with a phone call that came like a bolt out of the blue. It was the “political opportunity” he was not waiting for, but Smitha Prakash had plenty of time to listen. (IPA Service)
