As TIME magazine declared their Person of the Year for 2016, many Indians were disappointed. This was also partly due to confusion.
On Tuesday (December 6), TIME announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Person of the Year in the popular category, after thousands voted for the Indian PM on their readers’ poll.
What many misunderstood or overlooked was that it was according to a reader poll and not the publication’s jury.
Donald Trump, the US president-elect was announced as the 2016 Person of the Year and appeared on the coveted cover this year, reported The Indian Express.
According to TIME, “Modi won with 18 per cent of the vote when the poll closed Sunday at midnight.
He placed well ahead of his closest contenders, including Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Julian Assange, who all received 7 per cent of the ‘yes’ vote.”
The report also added that PM Modi also placed far ahead of other prominent like Mark Zuckerberg (2 per cent) and Hillary Clinton (4 per cent).
In 2015, Modi had appeared on TIME cover when the magazine had done an exclusive interview with him after he became the Prime Minister. He also featured on the magazine cover in 2012, when he was the Gujarat chief minister.
While many Modi supporters rooted for their favourite leader winning the title, much like the US elections, Donald Trump took the chair away.
While Twitterati seemed volubly angry at the decision and slammed the magazine for naming Donald Trump as the Person of the Year, Indians seem to take solace in the fact that at least Modi won the popular vote.