NEW YORK: The TIME magazine has featured Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the cover of its international edition with a controversial headline and a secondary one that reads "Modi the Reformer" as the country enters the final phase of the mammoth general election.The American magazine's May 20, 2019 international editions - the Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia and South Pacific - feature the Modi cover story with the main headline "India's Divider in Chief" while the US edition has a cover story on Democrat Elizabeth Warren who is running for the White House in 2020.The article "India's Divider in Chief" is written by Aatish Taseer, son of Indian journalist Tavleen Singh and late Pakistani politician and businessman Salmaan Taseer.It also said the opposition Congress party has little to offer other than the dynastic principle.The article "Modi the Reformer" is authored by Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group, a global political risk research and consulting firm.The cover depicts a portrait of 68-year-old Modi.The articles inside the magazine have the titles "Can the World's Largest Democracy Endure Another Five Years of a Modi Government? ", written by Taseer and "Modi Is India's Best Hope for Economic Reform", by Bremmer.Taseer's article notes that "If in 2014 he (Modi) was able to exploit differences in order to create a climate of hope, in 2019 he is asking people to stave off their desperation by living for their differences alone. "Then he was a messiah, ushering in a future too bright to behold, one part Hindu renaissance, one part South Korea's economic programme. Now he is merely a politician who has failed to deliver, seeking re-election. Whatever else might be said about the election, hope is off the menu," he says.In 2014, Modi converted cultural anger into economic promise. He spoke of jobs and development. Taking a swipe at the socialist state, he famously said, 'Government has no business being in business'. That election, though it is hard to believe now, was an election of hope, the article says. "Not only has Modi's economic miracle failed to materialize, he has also helped create an atmosphere of poisonous religious nationalism in India," Taseer writes.Far from his promise of development for all, he has achieved a state in which Indians are increasingly obsessed with their differences, according to the article.On Congress -- India's oldest party -- he said it has no more political imagination than to send Priyanka Gandhi - Rahul Gandhi's sister - to join her brother's side. It would be equivalent to America's Democratic Party fielding Hillary Clinton again in 2020, with the added enticement of her daughter Chelsea as Vice President. "Modi is lucky to be blessed with so weak an opposition - a ragtag coalition of parties, led by the Congress, with no agenda other than to defeat him. Even so, doubts assail him, for he must know he has not delivered on the promise of 2014. It is why he has resorted to looking for enemies within," he wrote.On the other hand, Bremmer's article notes that while Modi's economic record is mixed, "India still needs change, and Modi remains the person most likely to deliver. He has improved relations with China, the US and Japan, but it's his domestic development agenda that has done the most to improve the lives and prospects of hundreds of millions of people".Outlining the achievements of the Modi-led government, Bremmer talks about the Goods and Services Tax enacted in 2017, the "unprecedented amounts" of money directed towards the country's new infrastructure, expansion of the Aadhaar biometric identification system that began under the previous Congress–led government. "Modi has the instinct to dominate and the thin skin of other strongmen, but he also has a genuine track record in providing the kind of reform that developing India urgently needs," Bremmer writes.Modi also benefits from a lack of a credible alternative. The opposition Congress party's election platform centers on a programme that would provide direct cash payments to 50 million poor families. But a promise is not a plan, the BJP controls enough states to block a Congress government's projects and Modi has already delivered for many people, according to the article.<doc-sep>TIME magazine has put Prime Minister Narendra Modi on its cover, called him India's "divider in chief", and asked if India can endure five more years of his government. The opposition pounced on the story on Friday. The women's wing of the Congress, for example, pointed to the opening line -- "Of the great democracies to fall to populism, India was the first." -- to attack PM Modi. "Your truth is for all to see," the All India Mahila Congress tweeted to Modi. In the same issue, TIME published a second story on the prime minister, titled, "Modi Is India’s Best Hope for Economic Reform." TIME's articles on Modi come as India's Lok Sabha election enters its home stretch, with just two polling phases left before votes are counted on May 23. The cover story, reported by Aatish Taseer, says "the world's biggest democracy is more divided than ever" -- the broad array of topics that find mention in the piece include mob lynchings, the appointment of Yogi Adityanath as Uttar Pradesh's chief minister in 2017, and the BJP's recent decision to field Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in Bhopal. The article is also critical of the the opposition, which it calls a "weak", "ragtag" coalition; it says the Congress has "little to offer than the dynastic principle" and describes Rahul Gandhi as "an unteachable mediocrity". ALSO READ | PM Modi's acche din claims are great but what about data? Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been on the cover of TIME before -- for example, an interview with the BJP leader headlined a May 2015 cover. (He has also won, more than once, the online readers' poll for TIME Person of the Year.) Twitter/@TIME When the 2015 edition was published, Narendra Modi had been prime minister for a year; he assumed office on May 26, 2014, after crushing the UPA in a Lok Sabha election that saw the BJP win a parliamentary majority on its own. This year, Modi is running again from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, which votes on May 19, the last polling day. Check out IndiaToday.in's comprehensive guide to the Lok Sabha election schedule. Scroll down to track your MP's performance.<doc-sep>Prime Minister Narendra Modi is often described by his party as a workaholic who sleeps for just a few hours, presenting him as a sharp contrast to Congress president Rahul Gandhi who is projected by the BJP as a politician lacking commitment. In an interview, Rahul Gandhi attempted to shake off this perception about a prime minister who hardly sleeps for a few hours and spends most of his time at work. “Who said not sleeping is the measure of working?” Gandhi said. Also Read: Exclusive | ‘Narendra Modi is obsessed with my family’: Rahul Gandhi “How do you define work? Do you define work as coming in front of a camera and waving? I don’t define work like that. An essential part of my work is spending time thinking about, and listening to people’s voices and using those interactions to develop a strategy for the country,” Rahul Gandhi told Hindustan Times. Gandhi also insisted that he spent a lot more time than PM Modi thinking about the country. “I will bet you, whatever you want, that as far as thinking about India is concerned, I’m spending at least 10 times the amount of time, that Mr Narendra Modi is spending,” the Congress president said. PM Modi had also spoken about his sleep pattern during his interview with actor Akshay Kumar also. The prime minister, who had earlier said that he sleeps for just about 3-4 hours every day, told the actor that this was a topic that had come when he met US President Barack Obama in early 2015. When HT pointed out that even Barack Obama was reported to have been amazed by the PM’s ability to work with less sleep, Gandhi said, “Mr Barack Obama was probably having him on! The Americans do psychological profiles of all leaders and they tell you exactly what you want to hear.” “And Mr Narendra Modi bought it hook, line and sinker,” said Gandhi, who has been the target of a campaign that attempts to ridicule him. Like when he put off a press conference by a few hours earlier in March, the BJP took a swipe at him claiming that he must have overslept. This week, BJP president Amit Shah described PM Modi as a leader who has worked for 18 hours daily for the last 18 years and contrasted his 24X7 working style to Rahul Gandhi who he said, dashes off to undisclosed foreign destinations at the slightest discomfort.<doc-sep>
American news magazine Time has featured Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the cover of its May 20 international edition with a headline that may create controversy across India amid the election season. The headline in the cover reads "India's Divider in Chief" and carries a portrait of the Prime Minister. A secondary headline on the cover reads "Modi the Reformer." The title "India's Divider in Chief" pertains to the cover story in the magazine, written by Aatish Taseer, with the headline "Can the World's Largest Democracy Endure Another Five Years of a Modi Government?" The write up compares former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's idea of secularism with the prevailing social "stress" under Modi, who "demonstrated no desire to foster brotherly feelings between Hindus and Muslims," as per the article. Besides, the article also recalls the 2002 Gujarat riots that claimed many lives. The entire article is based on Hindu-Muslim relations and blames Modi for being pro-Hindu. This is not the first time that Time has come out with critical commentary about Modi. In an article published in 2012, the magazine had described Modi as a controversial, ambitious and a shrewd politician. The article written by Aatish Taseer also criticises the Congress, saying that it has little to offer other than dynastic politics, and termed Modi "lucky" as the opposition is "weak". "Modi has won -- and may yet win again -- but to what end? His brand of populism has certainly served as a convincing critique of Indian society, of which there could be no better symbol than the Congress Party. They have little to offer other than the dynastic principle, yet another member of the Nehru-Gandhi family. "India's oldest party has no more political imagination than to send Priyanka Gandhi -- Rahul's sister -- to join her brother's side. It would be the equivalent of the Democrat's fielding Hillary Clinton again in 2020, with the added enticement of Chelsea as VP," the article read. "Modi is lucky to be blessed with so weak an opposition -- a ragtag coalition of parties, led by the Congress, with no agenda other than to defeat him," it added. Reacting to the article, the Congress said that it was not surprised as under Modi's reign, India has seen ugly instances of mob lynching against the minorities, while there has been a conspicuous silence from his party, the BJP. "Modi in 2019 has brazenly flouted his Hindutva mission. In an unprecedented polarising speech, he talked of a Hindu minority seat in Wayanad from where Rahul Gandhi is contesting the elections. "By fielding Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur as the BJP candidate from Bhopal, Modi was sending out a clear message that he was backing the RSS agenda of a Hindu Rashtra," Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha told IANS. He further said that Modi took the entire country for a ride under the subterfuge of development and this time he has bared his communal fangs and let loose a poisonous overflow in our secular society. The All India Mahila Congress tweeted: "Sitting PM makes it to the cover of TIME Magazine and the title is 'Divider In Chief'. Of the great democracies to fall to populism, India was the first, says the opening sentence of the article. Your truth is for all to see @narendramodi." --IANS bns/arm (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)