Screams, or silence, of our youth haven’t reached Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ears. Paper leaks or not, most of them will become parasites, if not cockroaches. Modi anyway loves melody. His mind is tuned to rhythmic expressions of adulation and sycophancy. “Modi-Modi-Modi…” that’s the chant he has grown up on. Little wonder, he fears real questions. Ask him – aap thakte kyon nahin (why don’t you get tired), and he will burst into a thrilling monologue.It’s wrong to say Modi doesn’t take questions. Modi has chosen his own media. A media that ensures he isn’t subjected to scrutiny. A media that erects a protective gear around him. A media that hounds and silences critics. A media that nurses his megalomania. A media that trues up his lies and falsifies his rivals’ truth. A media that doesn’t inspect his transgressions, doesn’t explore his disabilities, doesn’t highlight his failures. A media that sympathetically implores – do you take any tonic? A media that goes numb to hear he is non-biological; sent directly by God to perform exceptional tasks. Modi obviously doesn’t hold press conferences where adoring queries like – do you keep a purse – can get overshadowed by irritating questions like – do you keep a conscience? Real press conferences don’t give the comfort of talking about his style of eating mango. He will have to answer how note-bandi gobbled up a thriving economy.Also watch: The Wire Wrap | Melody and India’s Press Freedom Go AbroadReal journalists will ask if doubt over the sanctity of electoral processes dims the glow of his victories, not whether he was preparing for 2029 as 2024 was a 400-plus done deal. Why should Modi step on to the landmine when he can take a stroll in the garden?Modi also knows the Sangh Parivar’s political project is absolutely indefensible. It is so manifestly unjust and unconstitutional that holding press conferences are like performing hara-kiri. What will he defend? Whether the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) keeping away from the freedom struggle was patriotic? Why did the RSS oppose the national flag tricolour? Why was Atal Bihari Vajpayee compelled to remind him of rajdharma? Is Hindu Rashtra compatible with constitutional principles? Was RSS right in proclaiming that India should learn racist pride from Nazi Germany? Was note-bandi a success? Why is Adani above the law of the land? Why is the corrupt and tainted from every party in the BJP? Why did India stop buying oil from Russia? Why is he silent on American bullying and Chinese aggression? Does he support genocide in Gaza? Why did he go to Israel two days before the war? Why is Rahul Gandhi calling him compromised? How many questions will he answer? The best way is to indulge in a monologue or to give sermons to his pet media. Fair or false?Hindi poet Naresh Saxena has written, “Bhed nadi ka pana ho toe pul par paon na dharna”. What he suggests is to step into the river if you want to understand its true nature. A view from the bridge may give you false impressions. In political context, it’s a suggestion to the people to judge a leader on his work and true strength, not on the basis of propaganda.An image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the teleprompter erased. Photo: www.pmindia.gov.in.The attempt to hide tele-prompters placed in front of Modi is a cunning ploy to create false impressions. There is enough visual evidence to show that Modi uses tele-prompters not only in public speeches and official functions, photographs showed a tele-prompter was placed in front of him in Italy for making a short prepared statement. But the image released officially had erased the tele-prompter from the photograph. If Modi needs support in communication, where is the need to hide it? Accepting truth is a better option than resorting to deception. There was a controversy recently when a BJP worker showed tele-prompter live while making a video on the stage at an election rally.Releasing videos by muting audio also deepens suspicion. Some people will naturally guess the news agency or the government does not want people to hear what Modi said. Many videos of formal meetings with heads of state had audio muted. Some videos with audio somehow got released and people started talking about Modi’s intellectual limitations. Some even sarcastically remarked about Modi’s artificial and unnecessary laughter. Modi could have avoided such embarrassment by an open attitude towards these issues. What’s the problem if he spoke in Hindi and behaved gracefully instead of being sheepish by trying conversations in English?Communication skill, or knowledge, is not the only attributes of a great leader. Real patriotism is in standing firm on national interest. Modi could have bolstered his credentials by confronting Donald Trump and Xi Jinping on substantive issues. That doesn’t require language and articulation; that requires moral courage and sincerity of purpose. Mahatma Gandhi is the best example; he never tried to impress anybody as his truth and morality dwarfed everybody else. Deception is the worst option; it is doomed to fail, and embarrass. Rights and policingHow can a thoughtful man with lots of books, passion for a just society and a deep yearning for serving the poor be a threat to the nation? No, not a Naxal wandering in the jungle with the gun and revolutionary zeal who challenges the State through violent means. Just a peace-loving activist who aspires to make a difference with his pen. If such persons are arrested under the National Security Act (NSA), citizens and the judiciary need to intervene.The Uttar Pradesh police invoked NSA against journalist-and-author Satyam Verma and student activist Akriti Choudhary, projecting them as the mastermind of Noida workers’ protest that triggered violence last month. There is no evidence to prove they planned or instigated violence. Even if they supported the demand for higher wages of workers, should they be treated as a threat to the nation and so ruthlessly hounded under draconian laws? What’s the crime?Also read: Of Denials and Cockroaches: Does the Gen Z See Asking Questions As Patriotism, Not Hostility?Supporting the demand that a poor factory worker, struggling to keep his family alive with around Rs 10,000 he gets in a month should get a little more money is such a heinous crime? Rulers who squander hundreds of crores on self-publicity, the elite that spends thousands on a single dinner and the middle-class that buys a pizza for Rs 500 need to show some compassion. The worker, who builds the country and sustains the economy, is not asking for the moon. His dreams do not go very far; he desires a couple of hundreds more daily to ensure that his fragile body keeps running along with the giant profit-machines of the rich and powerful.The class, sitting comfortably in air-conditioned offices, that pockets anything between Rs 8000 and Rs 15,000 daily, needs to appreciate those whose hearts cry for those earning Rs 8000 to Rs 15,000 monthly. Verma, a journalist, could have chosen to join the Modi-Modi chorus for a yearly package of Rs 40 to 50 lakh. And no police arrests anybody for spreading hatred and lies from TV studios on a daily basis. Sycophants are the new celebrities.Anyway, noble souls like Verma are precious for our society. A reputed citizen of Lucknow, Verma runs a lovely bookshop – Jan Chetna – and a library-cum-café on behalf of a trust. The Noida police say “books of Mao Tse-Tung and objectionable anti-democratic system” were found at his office. The Jan Chetna shop does have revolutionary material, from Karl Marx to Bhagat Singh, but when did it become a crime to possess such books? The police, that showed the arrest in Noida despite visual evidence of him being taken out from his Lucknow office, obviously hasn’t learnt lessons from similar fake cases that troubled the nation.What happened to the NSA slapped on educationist Sonam Wangchuk? What did the court say when climate activist Disha Ravi was arrested on sedition charge for “spreading toolkit” during the farmers’ movement? The court reprimanded Delhi Police, saying “citizens are conscience-keepers of any democratic nation.” Asking the police not to arrest anybody for the “wounded vanity of the government”, the court said, “a citizen cannot be thrown behind the bars simply because they choose to disagree with state policies.” Verma and Choudhary are the conscience-keepers of our society. Ernst Huber, one of the official spokespersons of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, had said, “The concept of personal liberty of the individuals as opposed to the authority of the state had to disappear; it is not to be reconciled with the principle of the nationalistic Reich.” The police and the courts must not presume India has already reached the level of Nazi Germany. We are a democracy even now. And writing for justice, both economic and social, isn’t a crime. As Ahmad Faraz famously wrote: “Ab mera hunar hai mere jamhoor ki daulat/Ab mera zunoon khaif-e-tazeer nahin hain.”Sanjay K. Jha is a political commentator.