Pakistani-American Journalist Questions Modi About Treatment of Minorities in India

Jun 24, 2023

Wall Street Journal's White House Correspondent Sabrina Siddiqui, a Pakistani-American Muslim journalist, got to ask the only question posed by an American journalist to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent visit to the White House in Washington, DC. This was the first time in 14 years that Mr. Modi took an unscripted question from any journalist anywhere in the world. In fact, it was his first press conference since taking office as the prime minister of India in 2014.

Narendra Modi (Left), Sabrina Siddiqui (R)

Sabrina Siddiqui asked the Indian leader about rights groups’ assessments that his government is discriminating against religious minority groups and quashing dissent. She asked," What steps are you and your government willing to take to improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities in your country and to uphold free speech?"

The Islmophobic Indian prime minister feigned “surprise” at the question and said democracy is core to India. He then went to lie in front of the whole world claiming that there's ”absolutely no space for discrimination” in India.

Cartoonist Mocks Modi's Answer at the White House. Source: Satish Acharya

Modi’s mendacious answer is in sharp contrast to rising state persecution of religious minorities, including Muslims and Christians, in India. Modi's BJP-affiliated politicians have called for genocide against Indian Muslims, attacked mosques and churches, and demolished homes, according to The Nation. The Biden administration has remained silent on these issues, choosing instead to try and strengthen the US-India relationship and deepen the ties between the countries’ military and technology sectors, as a counterweight to rising China.

For the last four years, the Biden Administration has ignored the USCIRF (US Commission on International Religious Freedom) recommendation to designate India as a “Country of Particular Concern” and impose strategic sanctions on Indian government officials and agencies involved in religious freedom violations.

Cartoonist Satish Acharya exposed Modi's lie in a cartoon by referring to a statement he made during the protests against the BJP-sponsored discriminatory CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) in 2019. "They (Muslims) can be identified by the clothes they are wearing," he said without elaborating.

Even though Modi did not know the exact question that would be posed to him at the press conference, he had a readymade answer regardless. Sabrina Siddiqui's question and Modi's answer illustrated how the BJP's lies are being shamelessly promoted and spread in India and elsewhere in the world. The Hindutva rulers of India are living a lie.

In a recent interview to CNN, former US President Barack Obama has pointed out the consequences of BJP's anti-Muslim policies. “If the (US) President meets with Prime Minister Modi, then the protection of the Muslim minority in a Hindu majority India is worth mentioning. If I had a conversation with Prime Minister Modi, who I know well, part of my argument would be that if you don't protect the rights of ethnic minorities in India, there is a strong possibility that India would at some point start pulling apart,” Obama had said.

“We have seen what happens when you start getting those kinds of large internal conflicts. So that would be contrary to the interests of not only the Muslim India but also the Hindu India. I think it is important to be able to talk about these things honestly,” said Mr. Obama.

Sabrina Siddiqui is one of many high-profile Pakistani-American journalists. Amna Nawaz is the co-anchor of the popular PBS NewsHour. Zohreen Adamjee Shah is a national correspondent for ABC News. Imtiaz Tyab is a foreign correspondent for CBS News. Asma Khalid covers the White House for National Public Radio. Wajahat Ali writes columns for New York Times and The Daily Beast.

Sabrina Siddiqui has an illustrious background. She is a great-great grand-daughter of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the founder of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in India. She has come under vicious attacks by right-wing Hindu Nationalist trolls since Modi's press conference at the White House.

Load Previous Comments

Riaz Haq

Violence Is the Engine of Modi’s Politics - The Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/08/narendra-...

With Gurugram, the Hindu supremacists have brought their polarization playbook to rich and middle-class neighborhoods, where they will likely be seeking to shore up support for the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of next year’s elections. The tactics remain familiar—mosque disputes, marches through Muslim neighborhoods—but the unpredictability of where the violence will erupt next, the thrill and fear of it, keeps the Hindu right’s base energized. Violence of this kind almost certainly requires assent from the very top, and the opaqueness and secrecy around such decisions are part of Modi’s mystique and power.

By the time I set off from Gurugram for home in New Delhi that day in August, evening had fallen. In less than 10 minutes, I reached the wide-lane, American-style freeway that connects Gurugram to the national capital. Neon lights on the glass towers of corporate headquarters and luxury hotels shimmered in the humid night. How minuscule, I thought, was the distance that remained between India’s modern vision of itself and the mobs of Hindu supremacism.

Sep 8, 2023
Riaz Haq

Pakistani American Aishah Hasnie promoted to anchor, White House correspondent | Fox News

https://www.foxnews.com/media/fox-news-channels-aishah-hasnie-promo...

FOX News Media has promoted Aishah Hasnie to anchor and White House correspondent, President and Executive Editor Jay Wallace announced Tuesday.

Hasnie will anchor her own solo signature program on Saturday afternoons from 12 - 2 p.m. ET beginning on Jan. 10. She will assume the White House correspondent position this week. Hasnie, who joined Fox News in 2019, has previously served as a senior national correspondent and congressional correspondent, both based in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, she was a New York-based correspondent.

"Aishah’s knowledge of Washington makes her a perfect addition to our stellar White House team of correspondents, and we are confident she will excel in the anchor chair as well," Wallace said.

--------------
Fox News Promotes Aishah Hasnie To Anchor And White House Correspondent

https://deadline.com/2025/12/fox-news-aishah-hasnie-white-house-cor...

Before Fox News, Hasnie was an anchor and investigative reporter at WXIN-TV, the Fox affiliate in Indianapolis, where she helmed the 4 PM newscast First at Four. She also was an investigative reporter and substitute anchor at CBS affiliate WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, IN. She got her start at GEO-TV, an international network based in Pakistan, where she was born. (She was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1984)

Dec 3, 2025
Riaz Haq

Helle Lyng
@HelleLyngSvends
Asking my prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre about why Norway refers to India as a democracy when the Indian PM has not had a press conference in 12 years at home. Is not a free press important to democracy anymore? Støre points to India holding elections. He does acknowledge differences in press culture, but also points to Indias large population.

https://x.com/HelleLyngSvends/status/2056759982645805127?s=20

---------------

Helle Lyng
@HelleLyngSvends
Talking a little bit about the difficulties with the press conference held by the MEAs

https://x.com/HelleLyngSvends/status/2057165760611471656?s=20

-------------

Modi avoids Norway media: How that led to storm over India’s press freedom
India is currently ranked 157th out of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/20/modi-avoids-norway-media-h...

A tricky encounter with a Norwegian journalist has shone a light on the reluctance of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and members of his government to engage directly with the media on uncomfortable issues.

After Helle Lyng Svendsen from Norwegian daily Dagsavisen asked Modi why he wouldn’t take questions from the press, and later the same day asked a senior official of India’s Ministry of External Affairs about India’s human rights record, Modi’s response was to walk away without replying while his minister’s was to try to deflect by talking about unrelated facets of India’s past and present, and then to become visibly angry.

India’s prime minister was in Norway on a two-day visit as part of a tour of northern Europe. On Monday, he met with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and, on Tuesday, Modi took part in the third edition of the India-Nordic Summit, before leaving for Italy, where he is meeting Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday.

Modi has not held a single news conference in India during his 12-year term in office. On his multiple trips abroad, he has only rarely fielded questions – including two in Washington, DC, in 2023.

The incidents in Norway have renewed criticism from media organisations, which point to India’s sliding rankings in press freedom indices.

So why has Modi’s encounter with a Norwegian journalist led to criticism, and what do we know about media freedom in India?

What happened at the Norwegian news conference?
On Monday, Modi wrote on X that he was addressing a “press meet” with Norway’s Prime Minister Store. However, he did not take any questions from reporters.

When Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng Svendsen from the daily newspaper Dagsavisen asked: “Prime Minister Modi, why don’t you take some questions from the freest press in the world?” he simply walked out of the conference room. It is not known if the Indian leader heard the question.

Svendsen followed Modi out of the news conference room and asked: “Do you deserve the trust of our … [government]?”

But she did not receive a response to that question, either.

She later took to social media to criticise the Indian prime minister.

“In Norway, when foreign leaders visit, the press usually will get to ask questions. Not many, but a few. That was not the case today with Modi, and will not be tomorrow either,” she wrote on X.

She told Al Jazeera on Tuesday: “We were, of course, expecting him not to answer questions, as that is what the PM does. However, it is our duty to try. I am a privileged journalist as I am reporting from one of the safest countries in the world. If I do not dare to ask questions, who will? I know the situation is alarming for my journalist colleagues in India.”

14 hours ago

PakAlumni Worldwide: The Global Social Network

Pakistani-American Journalist Questions Modi About Treatment of Minorities in India

Riaz Haq

Riaz Haq

Riaz Haq