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. PTI For in-depth, objective and more importantly balanced journalism, Click here to subscribe to Outlook Magazine<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>
The BJP on Saturday slammed a TIME magazine article, which called Prime Minister Narendra Modi "divider in chief", as an attempt to malign Modi's image, accusing its author of pursuing Pakistan's agenda. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told a press conference that article's author was a Pakistani and that nothing better can be expected from Pakistan. He also took a swipe at Congress president Rahul Gandhi for retweeting the story. The piece, a sharp criticism of Modi's leadership, has been written by Aatish Taseer, son of Indian journalist Tavleen Singh and late Pakistani politician and businessman Salmaan Taseer. Patra said several foreign magazines had written stories critical of Modi in 2014 as well. Calling the prime minister a unifier, the BJP spokesperson listed a number of welfare measures started by the Modi government to claim that the country was heading towards a new India under his "reforming, performing and transforming" agenda. Patra also slammed Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for his barbs at Modi, accusing Sidhu of making racist and sexist remarks. Taking a swipe at Sidhu, Patra said he keeps making all sort of loose statements but has not spoken a word against Congress leader Sam Pitroda's "so what" remarks on 1984 anti-sikh riots. Pitroda, a close aide of Gandhi and Overseas Congress' head, on Thursday said, 'hua to hua' (So what, it happened) about the anti-Sikh riots. He made this remark in response to a question on the riots by a newsman in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. Patra claimed Sidhu was targetting Modi at the behest of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath who, he alleged was also involved in the riots. Sidhu at a poll rally had asked people to defeat "kale angrez", in an apparent attempt to liken the Modi government to the British rule before independence. The Congress leader had also claimed that Modi was like a bride who makes noise from her bangles to give an impression that she was working hard but did not really work. Patra said these remarks showed the Congress' mindset. In a swipe at the opposition party over the Italian origin of its former president Sonia Gandhi, he said the Congress should not be very arrogant about its Italian colour as this will disappear on May 23, when Lok Sabha poll results will be out. 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 also said the opposition Congress party had little to offer other than the dynastic principle.