(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to journalists yesterday for the first time since taking office, aiming to mend his rocky relations with the press.
It was Modi's first formal outreach to the media after assuming office and it broke the ice when he met journalists, shook hands with them and smiled for selfies.
The right-wing leader has never given a press conference and prefers using state media as well as his huge Facebook and Twitter following to communicate with the masses.
But in an apparent break from the approach passed on by his predecessors, he addressed more than 200 journalists at BJP headquarters in New Delhi, pledging to meet them more often.
"I am looking for ways to strengthen my relationship with you and... I will try to find time to meet you more often," Modi said, an announcement welcomed by journalists who have complained of a lack of two-way communication with the new government.
After an eight-minute speech in which he thanked the media for its coverage of his 'Clean India' campaign - aimed at tidying up public spaces - he stepped off the dais to shake hands and briefly chat with top editors and reporters, who scrambled to pose for "selfies" with the tech-savvy premier.
But Modi faced flak from critics for not taking any questions from the media. He has carefully controlled his communication strategy since coming to power, mostly choosing the state-backed Doordarshan broadcaster and All India Radio to address India's 1.2 billion-strong population.
He is also immensely popular on Facebook and Twitter - where he has 24 million "likes" and 7.3 million followers respectively - and uses these websites as platforms to express his views and make announcements.
Journalists are often asked to refer to official press statements and Modi's Twitter feed for news, leaving private news organisations grumbling over Modi's one-way interaction which they say offers no debate and shields him from tough questions.
Modi was flanked by BJP president Amit Shah and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
While Shah addressed the media, as is part of the custom that party president speaks, Modi was seen chatting with Rajnath Singh and smiling. Shah chose to talk about the recent victories of his party in the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana.
The prime minister however kept politics at bay, and chose to break the ice recounting how once upon a time he was the one to make seating arrangements for the media. Modi was referring to his days in the BJP national headquarters before he was made the chief minister of Gujarat.
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