Time's Modi cover says "India's Divider in Chief"

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 10, 2019 international editions - Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia and South Pacific - feature the Modi cover story with the main headline “India’s Divider in Chief”.

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. The article “Modi the Reformer” is authored by Ian Bremmer, president, 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 Ian 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 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.

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.