Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla have been named among the world’s 100 most influential people of 2021 by TIME magazine.
TIME on Wednesday unveiled its ‘The 100 Most Influential People of 2021’, a global list that includes US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry and Meghan, former US President Donald Trump and co-founder of the Taliban Mullah Baradar.
TIME’s profile of Modi says that in its 74 years as an independent nation, India has had three pivotal leaders — Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Modi. “Narendra Modi is the third, dominating the country’s politics like no one since them.” The profile written by noted CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria alleges that Mod has “pushed the country away from secularism and toward Hindu nationalism.”
It also accuses the 69-year-old leader of “eroding the rights” of India’s Muslim minority and imprisoning and intimidating journalists.
On Banerjee, her profile for the 100 most influential list says that the 66-year-old leader “has become the face of fierceness in Indian politics.”
“Of Banerjee, it is said, she doesn’t lead her party, the Trinamool Congress - she is the party. The street-fighter spirit and self-made life in a patriarchal culture set her apart,” the profile says.
