Of course, Narendra Modi was the cynosure. There was little doubt he was the man of the match. His two senior Cabinet colleagues, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, mingled around but were careful not to hog the limelight. Amit Shah, who is proving to be the BJP’s poll magician, made sure his speech was brief and with great deference asked the Prime Minister to take the lectern.

Modi was as usual focused and to the point. He touched a chord when he remembered that there was a time he was involved in arranging chairs for such an event and would shoot the breeze with the media. Then while recognising the power of the pen and now the camera, he talked of how the media could be a force multiplier to bring awareness of programmes like Swachh Bharat (Clean India) that he had launched.

After his brief speech, he took no formal questions, instead went around greeting all present individually. When it was my turn, I mentioned to him that The Tribune readers had contributed over Rs 3 crore to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for the flood affected in Jammu and Kashmir. His eyes lit up in appreciation and he said, “Thank you. That has always been the tradition of The Tribune.”

Overall, there was a noticeable thaw in Modi’s approach to the media. During the General Election he preferred rally speeches and tweets to address the masses rather than media interactions. As Prime Minister he has so far not held a full-fledged press conference in India. He has given interviews only to foreign media representatives on the eve of his visit to their respective countries.

On foreign trips, barring the official media and news agencies, no other media is permitted to accompany him on board his official aircraft. In sharp contrast, his predecessor, Manmohan Singh, despite his reticence used to hold on-board press conferences on his return journeys where he gamely took questions on all current issues.

Modi’s Cabinet colleagues, barring a chosen few, prefer not to speak to the press or be quoted. So much so that recently the Editors Guild of India had to formally pass a resolution against the undeclared media gag that was on. When the Modi government completed a 100 days, many of the ministers did give interviews but clamped up after that. Admittedly, the ministers in the Congress-led UPA regime were of the other extreme. They spoke too much and often in discordant voices. But they were always willing to defend their actions.

At yesterday’s Diwali bash, Modi acknowledged that the media had a role to play in a healthy democracy and he welcomed criticism. But in his actions so far he has studiously avoided direct on-record interactions with the media. Instead he has relied on his invisible army of aides to keep him briefed on what’s being said or written and then used his extraordinary talent to connect with the audiences directly to get his messages across.

Yet for someone who is so media savvy, the slips are beginning to show. His decision to visit Srinagar on Diwali was politically astute. With the Election Commission announcing election dates on Saturday it seemed more than just a coincidence. But by deciding to meet only a select cross-section of people in the safe confines of Raj Bhavan and not interacting with the ‘aam admi’ in the streets of Srinagar or with the local media, Modi lost an opportunity to rise above the ordinary.

There is a lesson Modi could learn from his predecessor, Atal Behari Vajpayee. While Vajpayee kept the national press at bay for most of his tenure, whenever he visited a state he would hold an impromptu press conference where he would make significant announcements. I was present on his visit to Puducherry in May 1999 where he made the dramatic announcement that he had ordered the Indian Air Force to retaliate against Pakistan’s intrusions in Kargil.

It is understandable that Modi is wary, even sour, after the bad press he received following the post-Godhra riots. But now he is the Prime Minister of India and it is important that he becomes more forthcoming with the media.