New Delhi: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office-bearer has started an online petition “to protest” against a Time magazine report which calls Prime Minister Narendra Modi “India’s divider in chief”.
Ashwin Johar, a doctor-turned-politician and central committee member of Overseas Friends of Bharatiya Janta Party (OFBJP), the party’s foreign cell, started the online petition on online platform change.org to protest an “attempt to malign Modi’s image”. The BJP, too, has slammed the report.
“In certain initiatives taken by the government, the benefit sometimes are given more to minorities. Hence, overall, there is no discrimination that the Modi government has done to Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian,” Johar told ThePrint.
The petition, started Saturday, has been signed by over 3,500 people in just over 8 hours.
Johar has worked with Vijay Chauthaiwale, in-charge of BJP’s foreign affairs wing. A medical graduate from Moscow, he quit the profession in 2002 to start a business in healthcare.
What the ‘Time’ report says
The May issue of US-based Time magazine’s international edition, has featured an illustration of PM Modi on its cover page, with the headline “India’s Divider In Chief”.
The report, written by Aatish Taseer — son of late Pakistani politician and businessman Salman Taseer and Indian journalist Tavleen Singh — strongly criticises PM Modi for polarising the Indian society. It has been titled, “Can the World’s Largest Democracy Endure Another Five Years of a Modi Government?”
Taseer’s report notes, “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.”
He adds, “Not only has Modi’s economic miracle failed to materialize, he has also helped create an atmosphere of poisonous religious nationalism in India.”
Also read: Modi – what India missed in Time magazine’s 2019 list of 100 influential people
What the petition says
Johar’s petition highlights that the “defamatory” Time report “is not only factually incorrect but it also questions the wisdom of Indian electorate who have overwhelmingly supported him in 2014 and also likely to reaffirm their faith in the leadership of Mr. Modi again in the ongoing election”.
The petition says that the author is incorrect in the majority of his arguments — on economy, development, women empowerment or the Hindu-Muslim divide.
“It appears that the only objective of this Pakistani- origin columnist is to defame Modi, defame Indian electorate and defame India,” adds the petition.
Tagging the editors of Time magazine, the petition says, “We are equally appalled by the choice of Timeeditors to make it highly derogatory column as its cover story, rather than another balanced story in the same issue of Time by Ian Bremmer which says that only- Modi is best suitable for economic reforms in India (sic).”
Bremmer, a Time columnist, has written a report in the same issue, titled “Modi Is India’s Best Hope for Economic Reforms”.
However, the petition also goes on to conclude that such reports “will have little or no effect on Indian electorate and they will elect Mr. Modi for the second term as India’s Prime Minister”.
‘Share it widely’
The BJP office-bearer, who goes by the handle name ‘Chowkidar Ashwin Johar’ on Twitter, shared his petition on the social media platform.
Some of us have initiated a petition against @TIME for publishing highly defamatory article against Indian electorate and India’s Prime Minister @narendramodi . please circulate widely and sign. https://t.co/kxGhbvnV8B
— Ashwin johar (@joharashwin) May 11, 2019
In another tweet, Johar said the report is an attempt to create a “negative narrative” against PM Modi.
Anti @narendramodi camp is all out to take yet another help from Pakistan to get the article published by a journalist who is son of a Pakistani to spread negative narratives in #India by @TIME Intentions are all nakedly visible. https://t.co/ZYAsJSyZz9
— Ashwin johar (@joharashwin) May 10, 2019
The petition was also shared on Twitter by Vijay Chauthaiwale with an appeal to sign and circulate widely.
Pl sign and circulate widely https://t.co/pAtndJbQpC
— Dr Vijay Chauthaiwale (@vijai63) May 11, 2019
Freedom of press is an important part of democracy. Public and press have right to criticise and question Govt’s moves and strategy. We are not cattles to be herd around as wished!
thank god world know actual truth of india and politics.. but sad no one can help us from communal rule
The petition reads ” Such derogatory articles on India and Indian Democracy should be condemned”…. How come questioning credibility of Modi as leader of pluralistic democracy becomes derogatory to the country. Shame on BJP thugs to translate Modi to India and India to Modi… Where is your conscience and ideology when you people started a person worship… What credibility you have left with to question other political parties?
Crossed 10000 signs
Beta, Time magazine does not operate in India where the media can be bought. Do not try scare tactics on them, it will boomerang.
Political leaders of the past, who inherited power from the British in 1947 accepted division of the country, one part Pakistan a purely a Muslim state and the other India as a secular country. What a joke, no scholar has ever bothered, what happened to the 25 %, Hindus left in Pakistan. Their number has dwindled to mere 1.5 % today and they lead a miserable life in fear of atrocities meted out to them daily by the majority in that country. On the other hand 9 % Muslims have grown to more than 23 %, in India. The Congress party had appeasement policy toward Muslims, a favourable treatment to them under secular India. Hindu majority was became second class citizens in their own country. Glaring example is exodus of more that 400,000 Hindus from Kashmir under intimidation by extremist Muslims there in the year 1990. No one bothered about it. Indian media is sold out to Congress party which plundered and gave them the booty and also it is not sincere to national interests. All the thugs have got together to defeat Mr. Modi government who has many a time said all citizens are equal and no one can exploit the poor or national interests. The contributors of the article in The Time Magazine are biased writers bent upon to undermine the majority Hindus of India.
Times has more credibility than any of the Indian media which has been working as mouth prices for the ruling bjp. There is nothing wrong with what has been said in the article. If one cannot handle criticism. It’s a definite sign of a lack of maturity.
Its better if we talk about India.
India has always been the world leader in Secular politics. But in the past 4 to 5 years a cloud of misleading and undemocartic mindset has engulfed all of our past glory.
its a huge sight of releive that this Modi Govt. Is counting its dates to get back where they should be. That is nowhere in Indian Political contingency. The type of Politics these BJP people do is so negative and full of rhetoric. ANy nation in this world cannot grow on rhetoric neither there people can live in peace. The only thing that Modi jis govt did was to divide everything,from communal lines to castism. Rich and poor. Powerful and underpowerful people. They divided our Nation on the lines of political favourism for there being in Power. They just want to rule the country they had no intentions to make India a super power or an developed nation. Everywhere they have spread hatred…even in nursery class kids are being made to think on whether there friend is muslim or a hindu…and whom they are to be friend with….its almost a nightmare for our martyred Freedom fighters who had the only goal to free our nation from Britishers. They laid there lives without ever thinking about there religion or caste. They all were Indians first but the narrative have turned turtle in these 5 years…. god save our India….Jai Hind
Towards the close of Vajpayeeji’s term, Time magazine had a story titled, Asleep at the Wheel. There was a column in Washington Post that was fairly critical of Dr Singh. Now this. As Cut the Clutter explained, these are points of view that we are free to accept, reject or ignore. There is no personal or political agenda. These publications reach 200 countries, are read by leaders of government and business, have a reputation to maintain. If we want foreigners to visit as tourists, invest in our country, engage with us diplomatically, we should be mindful of how the world sees us.