Mamata Banerjee named among world’s most influential people

The 2012 list is topped by American basketball sensation Jeremy Lin.

In recent days,Banerjee’s government has been criticised for choice of newspapers for state and state-aided libraries and a professor’s arrest over circulation of a cartoon featuring the chief minister.

Time said Banerjee,57,spent years struggling on the margins but ultimately she proved to be the “consummate politician.”

“Though much of Indian society remains hidebound in patriarchy and tradition,strong women still prevail in the nation’s political life. Mamata Banerjee rose to the fore last year when she and a movement she built from the grassroots wrested control of her home state of West Bengal,ending three and a half decades of sclerotic communist rule,” Time said.

Referred to by her supporters as ‘Didi’,Banerjee was labelled by critics as a “mercurial oddball and a shrieking street fighter”.

Through successive elections,she steadily expanded her power base while chipping away at those of her opponents,Time said adding that her lower-middle-class background was no obstacle in a country “notorious for its dynasties”.

“She out-Marxed the Marxists. And as chief minister of her home state,she has emerged as a populist woman of action — strident and divisive but poised to play an even greater role in the world’s largest democracy,” the magazine said.

On Gopalan,54,Time said through her work at the Naz Foundation,she has done more than anyone else to advance the rights of gays and the transgendered in India,successfully petitioning the courts to get rid of a British-era law against sodomy.

“Gopalan has brought about a revolution in the status of sexual minorities in India and has done so joyously,dancing,” it said.

The list comprising people “who inspire us,entertain us,challenge us and change our world,” includes Pakistan’s first Oscar winner filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy,Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry.

In his commentary on Chaudhry for Time,former Pakistani cricketer and politician Imran Khan said he has become the first head of Pakistan’s Supreme Court to attempt to bring the powerful to justice,taking on the Prime Minister and the President in an effort to hold them to account.

“It’s not just the politicians either. Chaudhry,63,is also seeking to take Pakistan’s intelligence agencies to task for their human-rights abuses,” Khan said in the magazine.

The list also includes New York’s Indian-origin prosecutor Preet Bharara,43,who has waged battles,and has been winning,against terrorists and some of the most powerful men on Wall Street.

Writing about Buffet,who has been diagnosed with early prostate cancer,the US President said in the Time magazine that the 81-year-old is not just one of the world’s richest men but also one of the most admired and respected,devoting the vast majority of his wealth to those around the world who are suffering or in need of help.

“The Sage of Omaha has handed down plenty of lessons over the years. Today,at 81,he reminds us that life is not just about the value you seek.It’s about the values you stand for,” Obama wrote.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is also on the list. Time lauded him for being “fiercely protective of Steve Jobs’ legacy and deeply immersed in Apple’s culture.”

It said the “highly ethical and always thoughtful” Cook,51,has already led the world’s most valuable and innovative company to new heights while implementing major policy changes smoothly and brilliantly.

On Obama,Time magazine said while his presidency seemed to be in deep trouble till a year ago,today “he stands as the favourite to win the presidential election of 2012.”

Things changed for Obama,50,as the economy began to do a little better and also in part due to the Republican presidential-primary campaign which “alternated between farce and fierce and produced an unloved presumptive nominee” in Mitt Romney.

“Obama showed great skill as a Commander-in-Chief,sending the Navy SEALs to take out Osama bin Laden and supervising an orderly departure from Iraq. But most of all,in the roil of a difficult time,he seemed smart and steady,trustworthy. Monuments are not often built to politicians who are merely trustworthy,but they do tend to win re-election,” Time said.

The list also includes Myanmar President U Thein Sein,Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney,Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,superstar entertainers Adele and Rihanna,talk show host Steven Colbert and actor Claire Danes.

Writing about Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy,33,American actor Angelina Jolie said her Oscar-winning documentary ‘Saving Face’ brought Pakistan’s acid-violence problem to the world stage.

“The victims in Saving Face are some of the strongest,most impressive women you will ever come across. She showed us their scars,and we saw their true beauty.”

Obaid-Chinoy is also “shaping the dialogue on Pakistan.

Saving Face depicts a Pakistan that is changing ¿ one where ordinary people can stand up and make a difference and where marginalised communities can seek justice,” Jolie said in her commentary on the filmmaker for Time magazine.

The list also includes biographer Walter Isaacson,who chronicled Steve Jobs’ life as well as Prince William’s better half Catherine and her sister Pippa Middleton.

The magazine named four individuals as the “rogues” in the list – Afghanistan’s Mullah Mohammed Omar,52,fugitive Taliban leader,and Sheik Moktar Ali Zubeyr,34,the purported emir of al-Shabab,an Islamic militia that has germinated in the rot of Somalia.

Giving the two company in the rogue list is Syrian President Bashar Assad whose regime has unleashed a violent crackdown on its people killing over 9,000 in the year long revolt. Also making to the rogue list is North Korea’s young leader Kim Jong Un,29.

“Villainy is often in the eye of the beholder,and sometimes the more heinous the crime,the more clinging the adulation. It should be no surprise that the four rogues in this year’s TIME 100 have supporters. That is a measure of their influence: the willingness to defend partisan ideologies with weaponry,” Time said.