NEW DELHI: When the annual TIME list of 100 most influential people was released in April 2017, it contained both good news and not so good news depending on how you look at it. Like 2015, this year too, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was featured in the list but unlike 2015, the accompanying introductory write-up was not a very flattering one.

Every year, for each person who finds a place in the list, TIME invites a known personality to write a few words about him/her. In 2015, US President Barack Obama wrote the introduction for PM Modi. This year the honors were done by writer, Pankaj Mishra ( author of Age of Anger: A History of the Present) who is known to be a vocal critic of the Modi brand of politics.

In early 2015, when the TIME 100 list came out, the BJP government had spent less than one year in office. Expectations were high and the mood was one of cautious optimism which was captured well by Obama in his remarks. It was soon after the then US President’s visit to India where PM Modi had addressed him repeatedly as “Barack” to show that the two were on a first name basis. In turn, Obama reciprocated the personal touch by referring to the Indian PM as “Narendra” in his write-up.

Now fast forward to 2017. The BJP government has been in power for nearly three years and the initial euphoria has settled down. The write-up can no longer be about promises alone. It is perhaps with this in mind that TIME invited Mishra to write about PM Modi.

In the introduction to the list, TIME made an important point when they mentioned, “In divisive times, it’s tempting to nestle in a comfort zone, surrounded by people who look like us, think like us, pray like us, vote like us.” Inviting Pankaj Mishra to write about Modi challenged the very heart of this comfort zone and Mishra did not mince his words when he wrote this introduction:

“In May 2014, long before Donald Trump seemed conceivable as a U.S. President, Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy. Once barred from the U.S. for his suspected complicity in anti-Muslim violence, and politically ostracized at home as well, this Hindu nationalist used Twitter to bypass traditional media and speak directly to masses feeling left or pushed behind by globalization, and he promised to make India great again by rooting out self-serving elites. Nearly three years later, his vision of India’s economic, geopolitical and cultural supremacy is far from being realized, and his extended family of Hindu nationalists have taken to scapegoating secular and liberal intellectuals as well as poor Muslims.

Yet Modi’s aura remains undimmed. He is a maestro of the art of political seduction, playing on the existential fears and cultural insecurities of people facing downward or blocked mobility. In March, he won elections in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most politically significant state, by a landslide—confirmation that elected strongmen are the chief beneficiaries of a global revolt against elites.”

It is interesting to note how Indian media covered PM Modi’s profile while reporting that he featured in the list of 100 most influential people. While some sections of the media like Indian Express, Hindustan Times, NDTV, India Today and Economic Times quoted the profile verbatim with only minor edits that didn’t change the overall tone, others were clearly uncomfortable talking about it. A few carried an edited version, omitting details. Others presented excerpts of the 2015 citation instead of the current one. Still others tried to twist the facts to make it seem more favourable. Let us look at a few samples:

Zee News covered the news about Modi in the ‘most influential people list’ but skipped mentioning the introduction that accompanied the listing. Instead it quoted from the 2015 write-up by Obama. It went a step further to add, that TIME notes that unlike many of his predecessors, PM Modi has worked to lead from the front. “He’s already carved out an impressive international profile — not too many other international leaders can pack Madison Square Garden for a speech, as Modi did last September.” In reality, the magazine had made no such observation about Modi this year. This quote is actually from 2015 .Back in 2015, Zee News had covered the story quoting Obama’s introduction of Modi. This is the same introduction that it has repeated in this year’s story, blacking out completely the current year’s write-up.

LiveMint too made the same choice of making no mention of the actual 2017 write-up. “He was named among Time’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2015 and former US President Barack Obama had written a profile for him for the magazine”, says its write-up.

Its coverage of the most influential list this year is in sharp contrast to 2015 where they talked of warm personal friendship between Modi and Obama and went on to share the full write-up.

Times of India after carrying a story about PM Modi being among the probables for the list, followed it up with a subdued story. The story mentioned that PM Modi’s profile was written by Pankaj Mishra but carried only two sentences from it. It merely reported, the first part of Mishra’s sentence, “Nearly three years later, his vision of India’s economic, geopolitical and cultural supremacy is far from being realized and his extended family of Hindu nationalists have taken to scapegoating secular and liberal intellectuals as well as poor Muslims” .

Times Now headline talked about “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma – the only two Indians to feature on the list” but they were also uncomfortable mentioning the magazine’s citation for PM Modi. Instead they mention that “in 2015 and former US president Barack Obama had written a profile of him for the magazine”.

The Hindi publications went a step further.

Jagran clearly misrepresents the reality with a headline saying “?????, ????? ?? ??????? ?? ????? TIME ??? ???? ???? ?? ???? ????”. (Defeating Trump, Putin and Jinping, PM continues his stint in TIME) In reality Trump, Putin and Jinping are also part of the list and PM Modi has not edged them out.

Dainik Bhaskar also follows suit in its coverage of the news. It also takes solace in the fact that two years ago Obama wrote about Modi. It then proceeds to mention only the first sentence of the 2017 citation and give an incomplete picture of the message by saying “????? ???????? ???? ?? ?? ?? ??????? ????? ?? ??????? ?? ?????????? ???? ?? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ???? ???? ?? 2014 ??? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ???????? ?? ???????????? ?? ???“ (When Donald Trump was working hard to become the President of the United States, much before that in May 2014, Modi had already become the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy).

NamoApp, prime minister’s own app that regularly shares good news is also silent about him being featured in the TIME 100 list. A few months ago when Modi won the TIME ‘person of the year’ reader’s poll, the App had carried the story. This time around there are no congratulatory messages from ministers and no twitter hashtag run by supporters. WhatsApp groups and propaganda sites too are strangely silent.

Latest News

SAM JAWED