No Western conspiracy: Time

The Prime Minister8217;s Office is still seething over the report in Time. And the reporter in question, Alex Perry, does not want to add f...

The Prime Minister8217;s Office is still seething over the report in Time. And the reporter in question, Alex Perry, does not want to add fuel to the fire. But both he and Time magazine stand by the report on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Besides getting Vajpayee8217;s age wrong, the report, titled 8216;8216;Asleep at the Wheel8217;8217;, which was published in the June 17 issue of Time, was largely unflattering, sparking outrage in the BJP-led NDA Government.

While the External Affairs Ministry said the article was in poor taste, Home Minister L.K. Advani described it as a bunch of lies and Railways Minister Nitish Kumar chipped in with a demand for an unqualified apology.

BJP spokesman Sunil Shastri even called a press conference today to stress that Vajpayee was 8216;8216;hale and hearty8217;8217; and that the article was 8216;8216;baseless and irrelevant8217;8217;.

Asked if the party wanted action against Time, Shastri replied, 8216;8216;it is for the government to decide.8217;8217; But he recounted how a 8216;8216;malicious8217;8217; article carried by a newspaper against Singapore8217;s President had led to a three-year-ban on it.

On the other side of the firing line, Anthony Spaeth, executive editor, Time Asia, said he did not expect this kind of reaction at the time the article was written, although the magazine does get its share of angry rejoinders. He added that the PMO8217;s rejoinder had been published in the magazine8217;s latest issue. While ruling out any 8216;8216;western conspiracy8217;8217; behind the article, Spaeth said the error in age was the result of 8216;8216;an editorial glitch8217;8217; at the Hong Kong office.

Time8217;s correspondent Perry has been in Delhi since his return from Afghanistan in April. The 32-year-old journalist, who has been in the profession for 12 years now, was in strife-torn Northern Ireland before Afghanistan.

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As the brickbats pour in and BJP workers burn copies of Time, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj has also done her bit to snub the magazine.

Although she has included foreign journalists like Mark Tully and Francois Gautier of Le Figaro in her guest list for a dinner she8217;s hosting for some scribes, she has chosen to ignore Time. Swaraj is hosting the dinner at Taj Palace hotel in honour of the journalists who have been awarded by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh mouthpiece Panchajanya.