New Delhi: The BJP 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 retwitting 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.
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.
PTI