And that was despicable. Here the entire media spectrum has hardly complained about the fact that the sitting PM, a man FAMOUS for lambasting his predecessor as a mute, has never had a single non-staged media appearance.

IIRC the ONE time Modi did have a question session without being in control, it was a disaster.

And of this fact, there is not the slightest self awareness or questioning from the reporters or heads of news channels.

Again how is that muzzling the media? Not appearing for interviews is very different to gagging the media from saying things like in China.