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Why are bhakts celebrating Modi Time’s Person of the Year popular vote

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DailyBiteDec 05, 2016 | 17:12

Why are bhakts celebrating Modi Time’s Person of the Year popular vote

2016 can finally end on a good note for Modi bhakts and all the proud Indians, note ban notwithstanding. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won the Readers’ Poll for Time magazine’s Person of the Year contest, with 18 per cent of the vote in the 2016 poll, beating other global heavyweights such as Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Julian Assange, Hillary Clinton, Mark Zuckerberg and Vladimir Putin.

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It’s not a mean feat since this is a global platform, and not just one more NaMo app survey wherein even the questions are pre-determined to lead to particular answers. Nevertheless, the poll results, as analysed by poll host Apester, found that “Modi performed particularly well among Indian voters as well as those in California and New Jersey.”

As expected, the three million strong Indian American population in the USA, as well as the massive Indian diaspora all over the world, chipped in to turn this into a reality. It must be remembered that social media helped spread the word as a number of Modi supporters took upon themselves to urge all to vote for Modi and ensure that he gets the popular vote in the Time annual poll.

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 It goes beyond saying that Modi makes for a fascinating political study and is someone who wields considerable influence in the global circle.

Moreover, this is the fourth time in a row that PM Narendra Modi has been a top contender for the Time “Person of the Year” title, starting from 2013 onwards when it became increasingly clearer that he would win the next general elections scheduled in April-May 2014.

It goes beyond saying that Modi makes for a fascinating political study and is someone who wields considerable influence in the global circle. With the 1.3 billion Indian population under his sway, he is a leader commanding one-sixth of the world’s demography, and thereby a man of mammoth stature.

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Nevertheless, we must ask ourselves why is it that we are overjoyed when the PM dons the cover page of a famous western magazine, but go ballistic when he’s criticised. For example, when The Economist minced no words in puncturing Modi’s demonetisation bubble, bhakts on Twitter, including Union cabinet ministers such as Piyush Goyal, dismissed the distinguished magazine as being out of sync with reality. They cited that The Economist got Brexit wrong, and they couldn’t predict a Donald Trump victory in the US polls, and therefore the magazine’s substantial credential as a journal of politics and economics was questionable.

This selective acceptance of what the global media is saying about Modi is telling. For example, when the New York Times writes strong editorials against India’s cultural and moral policing, such as love jihad, ghar wapsi, cow vigilantism, as well as surgical strikes across the Line of Control, and now the cash crunch affecting 95 per cent of Indians negatively, Modi supporters trash it as examples of Western neo-colonialism.

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However, the very same stable latches on to a poll that declares Narendra Modi as the winner by the dint of his popularity only. That this poll says little on Modi’s ethical and moral stance on a number of issues, such as secularism, freedom of expression, welfare economics, etc, remains under-noticed or even mentioned.

As some have pointed out, the poll indicates that the winner is a global influencer, for better or worse. With demonetisation already shrinking the Indian economy at an unprecedented rate post 1991, only time will tell whether it was indeed for the better, or in fact, for the worse.

Last updated: December 05, 2016 | 17:12
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