There’s this particularly striking moment in the highly entertaining Rajat Sharma – Narendra Modi tête-à-tête (for the lack of a better word) on India TV where Sharma asks Modi his reaction to being called a dog by the Samajwadi Party loose canon, Azam Khan. You expect firecrackers – Modi even builds up the moment by pausing a second too many before answering.  But then, Modi – much to the disappointment of my drama-loving self – thanks Azam Khan. Why does he do so? Dogs are faithful creatures and he is proud to be faithful. This moment in the first quarter of the hour-long show is emblematic, in ways more than one, of what the hour-long spectacle turned out to be – replete with rhetoric, attempted humour (the kind that makes you cringe) and intellectually insolvent.

The show was just what the doctor – or in this case, the media advisor – prescribed to keep the Modi wave in full swing till May 16. Modi spoke of his god-gifted “colour combination”, his ingenious act of cutting off the sleeves of his kurta to cut down on the space it would occupy in his small satchel, his childhood daredevilry when he picked up a crocodile from a pool and a host of other things that firmly corroborated his claim of possessing a 56-inch chest (which by the way is 44 inches). Which is what made this “interview” seem more like a PR exercise. Egged on by a voluble and cheering crowd and a friendly interviewer (who calls himself an interrogator), Modi rid himself of the slur of not being willing to be questioned by a national channel. In fact, he went one step ahead by answering questions on the 2002 riots and the future of Muslims in the country if his party gets to form the government at the Centre. So, Modi had the cake and ate it too – and he made sure he got the flavour of his choice as well.

Bringing this jamboree to a slight halt though, has been a recent development at India TV. Qamar Ahmed Naqvi, the editorial director of India TV has raised a storm by quitting over, if sources are to be believed, the “fixed interview”.  While Naqvi has kept mum, sources close to him have told Newslaundry that Naqvi did indeed quit because of the interview.

What requires little debate is the fact that Modi definitely was not “grilled” by Rajat Sharma as India TV’s description of the show on Youtube would have had us believe.

In fact, it would take more than just blind devotion to both Rajat Sharma and Modi for anyone to believe that the show was any different from any other pre-scripted reality show. And the one person who actually goes an extra mile to drive home that inference is Rajat Sharma himself. Half-an-hour before the actual spectacle was aired, a prelude was telecast. A prelude which showed some of Modi’s sassiest responses during the show. The “Modi Modi” chants are an underlying feature – much like the show itself. In a segment of the same pre-show, Sharma, in a valiant attempt at neutrality, even clarifies (twice) that the audience was a diverse set who incidentally happened to be Modi fans. Aah, these coincidences.

In the same breath, Sharma gushes about how Modi’s “rockstar-like appeal” can only be compared to that of a Shahrukh Khan or a Salman Khan.  This is not to suggest, though, that the prelude was packaged to make Modi look good since Modi, in all fairness, is extremely savvy for most of the interview in any case. In fact, it was only a reiteration of how the actual show was – a bunch of Modi fans or cheerleaders led by ringmaster, Rajat Sharma, clinically acting out a very well-written script.

So, is it not possible that Modi is just naturally bloody good at interviews? Well, there are simply too many factors that suggest otherwise, to ignore.  First off, Modi’s terrible track record when it comes to one-on-one interviews. He’s messed up too often on the few occasions he’s granted them. The infamous Karan Thapar interview, where he walked out in the middle, has been preserved for posterity in the indelible world of the internet and will always haunt him.

The choice of host is also important. Rajat Sharma’s proximity to Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party is too well-documented to ignore.  Which is why, the reasoning that it was Modi Magic at work, charming a non-partisan journalist and crowd, doesn’t quite work.  Justifying the exercise by invoking the Arvind Kejriwal interview with Punya Prasun Bajpayi is bad reasoning for Modi. Just like 1984 doesn’t make 2002 right, much as certain people like to believe.

You can watch the complete interview here:

Author’s Note: Since this article was written, Narendra Modi’s interview-count has gone up by two. He’s given an interview each to TV9 and ANI.