Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi.Reuters File

After restricting himself from Indian media for long, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed journalists and thanked them for the coverage that invited people to join the Swachh Bharat Mission to make India clean.

The journalists and editors, who attended the Diwali Milan function, is of the view that the PM will come up with more media-government interaction in future.

After his short speech, Modi informally interacted with the media persons over tea for about an hour at the BJP headquarters in Delhi on Saturday.

12:07pm: Modi began his speech with Diwali and "bhai duuj" greetings to the media persons attending the function.

12:09pm: He further thanked the Indian media for the extensive coverage of "Swachh Bharat Mission."

"I've been reading several news articles on Clean India mission, there are columnists who used to write articles on several other subjects have now started writing on the Swachh Bharat mission," says Modi.

Modi praised the media for becoming a part of this mission, he appreciated and thanked them for portraying his party's vision of indulging every citizen into the mission.

At least 400 invitations were sent to print and electronic media persons, including senior editors, for Diwali Milan.

Party president and Modi's close aide Amit Shah along with senior party functionaries, including Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Power Minister Piyush Goyal also attended the function, according to a Business Standard report.

This meeting over tea is the first of its kind being hosted by Modi after taking charge as the Indian Prime Minister. Though he has been interacting with the media, he mostly restricted to DD News and All India Radio to relay his messages.