Better if Modi had held press conference: Congress

Ghulam Nabi Azad said that other journalists could have gotten a chance to participate in question-answer session

The Congress on Tuesday said it would have been better if Prime Minister Narendra Modi had held a press conference instead of giving an interview to Times Now news channel, adding he did not look "decisive".

"It would have been better if he had done a press conference so (that) other journalists could have gotten a chance to participate in question-answer session. But that did not happen and I don't think that will happen," Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

He said the Prime Minister looked defensive, going by his body language.

"I saw a Prime Minister being so defensive for the first time. The lion that would roar in April 2014; we saw him as an old lion. He looked weak; he was not decisive. It is sad," Azad said.

The Congress leader also questioned the outcome of India's foreign policy ever since the National Democratic Alliance government came to power in May 2014, about which the Prime Minister spoke about extensively.

"Modi called Pakistan (counterpart) to his swearing-in ceremony (in May 2014). He talked to the Pakistan Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif) at several fora. He even reached Lahore but in return what did we get in two years? Terrorism, that had almost ended in Jammu and Kashmir, in these two years, there is so much infiltration and ceasefire violation as had not happened in the last 60 years," the Congress leader said.

Commenting on Pakistan during his interview, Modi had underlined the problem of having multiple authorities in the neighbouring country.