Author: E Jayakrishnan in New Delhi
Publication: Sify news
Date: June 18, 2002
http://headlines.sify.com/934news4.html?headline=Don't~dare~mock~our~PM:
~Indians~rap~'Time'~magazine
Indian public opinion is increasingly
going ballistic over the Time magazine article, which has alleged that
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has 'multiple physical incapacities'
and is mentally and physically unfit.
The ministry of External affairs
has not only "talked" to the editors at Time, but the PMO is has written
a "stiff" rejoinder, pointing out that there are numerous "factual inaccuracies"
in the piece, including getting Vajpayee's age wrong.
But Time's promise of publishing
the Indian rejoinder has not stopped Indian columnists and the ruling NDA
constituents from going ballistic, even hinting that it was part of an
"American and Western conspiracy" to "demoralise" and "humiliate India".
Chandan Mitra, the editor of The
Pioneer, blasted the Time allegations, writing, "As an Indian I was outraged.
I was outraged by the supercilious, patronising, white- supremacist, flippant
and crassly ill-mannered tone of the piece."
"I was outraged that a magazine
of such awesome reputation could actually publish a catalogue of bazaar
gossip, almost totally incorrect and unsubstantiated. I was outraged that
not a single person was quoted to confirm even one damaging observation."
"I was outraged that an American
journalist and his redoubtable publication had mocked at the democratically
elected leader of a country of one billion."
Mitra concludes that "there was
a motive in running the article", which was to brow- beat India and the
Prime Minister to fall in line with US agenda in the region".
"(The) motive can only be to humiliate
India and get us to kow-tow to American diktats in the confrontation with
Pakistan." he thunders.
"As it is, the West is laughably
paranoid about the (non-existent) prospect of a nuclear war in the sub-continent.
It, therefore, bolsters their argument if it is proved that a sick man's
fingers may trigger a nuclear conflict."
"The aim is to lower India's confidence
level and deflect the Government into trying to salvage the Prime Minister's
image rather than address the more important military and diplomatic tasks
at hand."
While Mitra may be the most articulate
of the expressions of Indian outrage, he is certainly not the only one.
The Secretary General of Confederation
of Indian Industry, Tarun Das gave vent to his fury calling the Time article
'non-factual, impressionistic and very, very superficial".
Earlier, the Prime Minister's cabinet
colleagues like Union Minister for Railways Nithish Kumar and George Fernandes
were the among the first to take Tome to task.
"The Time article denigrates the
post of the Prime Minister and India of over 100 million people and we
demand that they tender an unqualified apology," Kumar said.
The speculation about Vajpayee's
health is not new. The capital itself has been abuzz with rumours about
the Prime Minister's failing health.
However, as a senior journalist,
very close to the government leadership told Sify.com, "The Prime Minister's
obituary has been written by vested interests many a time. It has been
going on for the last three years. I can assure you that he is, after his
knee operations, much more healthier than he was a year ago."
"While he has difficulty in walking
at a quick pace, mentally he is as agile as he you or I am. Rest assured
of that. The speculation can go. If I know the man, he will just laugh
it off," he says.
