Indian American Muslim Council has condemned TIME magazine’s cover story on Mr. Narendra Modi as a dismal PR exercise intended to whitewash Mr. Modi’s complicity in the Gujarat pogrom of 2002. “Although TIME’s cover story is not an endorsement, it contains inaccuracies, half-truths and glaring omission of pertinent details on Mr. Modi’s tenure as Chief Minister. These betray its real objective – an attempt by APCO Worldwide, Modi’s PR firm in Washington DC – to combat negative coverage of their client’s documented connivance in gross human rights violations, in order to project him as a Prime Ministerial candidate,” said Mr. Shaheen Khateeb, President IAMC. While the Indian courts are censuring Mr. Modi for contempt of court, the TIME story and the Brookings article are examples of irresponsible journalism.
IAMC has called upon TIME to run a second story on Narendra Modi and Gujarat, with detailed perspectives added by human rights defenders and whistleblowers in India, the findings of international human rights organisations as well as excerpts from the House Resolution 569 introduced this month in the House by Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN).