{"id":2259,"date":"2026-02-15T15:30:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T15:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=2259"},"modified":"2026-02-15T15:30:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T15:30:04","slug":"128387050-cms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=2259","title":{"rendered":"‘Desperate PR exercise’: Congress calls PM Modi’s interview ‘scripted’, alleges move to divert focus from trade deal, farmers | India News – The Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Jairam Ramesh (ANI image)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday reacted sharply to Prime Minister Narendra Modi<\/a>\u2019s interview with news agency PTI, calling it a \u201ccarefully scripted and desperate PR exercise\u201d and alleging that it was aimed at diverting attention from key issues.Party leader Jairam Ramesh said that the interview was timed to divert attention from criticism over the Union Budget and the Opposition\u2019s attack on the government in Parliament.\u201cThe PM knows that this year\u2019s Budget has been a damp squib and shows every sign of intellectual exhaustion. Markets have reacted negatively and investors have been unimpressed. Hence, he feels the need to give an interview a fortnight after the Budget was presented and a few days after it was taken apart by the Opposition in Parliament. As usual, there are Modi-style one-liners that mean little in reality,\u201d Ramesh said in a post on X.Alleging that the prime minister was facing pressure over the trade deal with the United States and farmers\u2019 issues, Ramesh said PM Modi was attempting to shift the narrative through media outreach.\u201cUnder siege and attack because of his surrender to the US on the trade deal, the Prime Minister is now resorting to his favourite tactic of headline management. He is trying to divert attention away from his betrayal of lakhs and lakhs of farmers and other capitulations. His so-called interview is no interview, but a carefully scripted and desperate PR exercise,\u201d he further wrote. Ramesh added in Hindi, \u201cPradhan Mantri jhuke bhi hain aur thake bhi hain.\u201dIn his interview, PM Modi said that the private sector will play a decisive role in driving India\u2019s next phase of economic transformation and asserted that reform has been a core commitment of his government \u201cin letter and spirit\u201d. He said the next leap towards \u201cViksit Bharat\u201d would depend on bold investments by industry in innovation, long-term capacity and global competitiveness.The prime minister said the latest Union Budget was not a \u201cnow or never moment\u201d born out of compulsion but a \u201cwe are ready\u201d moment born out of preparation and inspiration, asserting that it reflects India\u2019s \u201cyearning\u201d to become a developed nation. He maintained that none of his government\u2019s budgets were prepared with the attitude of creating a routine \u201cbahi khata\u201d document.Highlighting digital growth and infrastructure expansion, PM Modi said India is a global digital leader due to reforms in transactions through the UPI platform and added that data centres would be a massive job creator. He also said India is witnessing the most expansive infrastructure push in its history and emphasised that the government will do whatever it takes to support and modernise the defence forces.The prime minister criticised the previous UPA government\u2019s record, saying that during its rule, talks would begin and then break down, with little real substance achieved despite long negotiations. He also said political stability and predictability have restored investor confidence in India and asserted that the welfare of women guides every decision taken by his government.<\/div>\n\n

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Jairam Ramesh (ANI image) NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday reacted sharply to Prime Minister…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[724,6521,6523,723,719,720,721,1023,6488,722,6522],"class_list":["post-2259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-breaking-news","tag-congress-reaction","tag-farmers-issues","tag-google-news","tag-india","tag-india-news","tag-india-news-today","tag-narendra-modi","tag-pm-modi-interview","tag-today-news","tag-union-budget-criticism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}