NEW YORK – One of the world’s top magazines, TIME has put Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on its cover and asked if India can endure five more years ofhis government.
Calling him “India’s Divider in chief”, Time magazine’s cover storylinkasked:“Can the World’s Largest Democracy Endure Another Five Years of a ModiGovernment?”
The cover storylink,reported by Aatish Taseer, says “the world’s biggest democracy is moredivided than ever” — the broad array of topics that find mention in thepiece include mob lynchings, the appointment of Yogi Adityanath as UttarPradesh’s chief minister in 2017, and the BJP’s recent decision to fieldSadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in Bhopal.
“Under Modi govt, minorities of every stripe – from liberals and lowercastes to Muslims and Christians – have come under assault, India is “moredivided than ever,” the story by journalist Aatish Taseer reads.
Highlighting the rising populism in democracies like Turkey, Brazil,Britain, the US and India, Taseer writes: “Of the great democracies to fallto populism, India was the first.”
“Under Prime Minister Modi, nation’s most basic norms, such as thecharacter of the Indian state, its founding fathers, the place ofminorities and its institutions, from universities to corporate houses tothe media, were shown to be severely distrusted,” the article read.
Taseer is a British-born writer-journalist, and the son of Indianjournalist Tavleen Singh and late Pakistani politician and businessmanSalmaan Taseer.
The article is also critical of the Indian opposition, which it calls a“weak”, “ragtag” coalition; it says the Congress has “little to offer thanthe dynastic principle” and describes Rahul Gandhi as “an unteachablemediocrity”.
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“Modi will never again represent the myriad dreams and aspirations of 2014.
Then he was a messiah, ushering in a future too bright to behold, one partHindu renaissance, one part South Korea’s economic program.
Now he is merely a politician who has failed to deliver, seekingre-election.
Whatever else might be said about the election, hope is off the menu,” thearticle reads.
The Indian opposition on Friday pounced on the story in Time’s cover forMay 20, 2019. The women’s wing of the Congress, for example, pointed to theopening line — “Of the great democracies to fall to populism, India was thefirst.” — to attack PM Modi.
“Your truth is for all to see,” the All India Mahila Congress tweeted toModi.
