Social media is abuzz these days – a British publication declared India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi as ‘World’s Most Powerful Person 2019’. Obviously, supporters were delighted. Not only those in the government but other devotees of the PM, expressing their pride and self-congratulation.
While publications such as Forbes and Time are known for the ‘biggest’, ‘richest’, ‘most powerful’ lists published over many years, this is the first time we heard about this British publication. It is a magazine that has published these results based on votes recorded via a readers’ poll.
Many from the ruling BJP as well as other supporters of the PM lavished their praise upon their leader and expressed their pride at the ‘win’.
It was pointed out that the ruling party may want to use the term ‘supreme leader’ for their leader, but that no self-respecting democracy would use such a term for obvious reasons.
BJP leaders expressed their joy on social media that their leader had received over 31k votes versus 29k votes for Russia’s Vladimir Putin and 23k votes for Donald Trump.
Publications such as Zee, Republic etc seen as friendly towards the ruling dispensation were also enthusiastic in their reporting. According to Zee News, the British Herald story is “proof of his image of a global leader”.
When Doordarshan also tweeted enthusiastically about the poll, some thought that this negatively impacted the credibility of DD. They thought that as the national media house, DD ought not to tom-tom a report from in inconsequential publication such as this.
India's top fact-checking website examined the claim of British Herald being a ‘leading publication’ among other things. It was found that far from being a ‘leading publication’, few know about the magazine which was incorporated only in 2018. It is found to have low traffic and Alexa rank; which has recently increased slightly. While the holding company is registered in the UK, the directors are Indian businessmen.
Though the results of the poll were declared only recently, this tweet featuring an image of the publication with the headline ‘Narendra Modi – World's Most Powerful Person’ was tweeted over one month ago. Interestingly the cover was ready and its image was tweeted well before the polling was supposed to have ended.
Many pointed out that the British Herald has a modest social media following. Even at the time of writing it has barely over 4k followers on Twitter while leading publications typically have followers numbering in the millions.
Since most people had never heard of British Herald before, some Tweeple demanded to know more about its credentials or lack thereof. All in all, it would seem that the 'award' or 'title' of the ‘World’s Most Powerful Person 2019’ is not of any consequence. It is an announcement made by an unknown foreign publication that ran an online poll. Is our self-esteem as a nation so low as to need a placating boost from such a dubious ‘honour’?
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