BJP attacked Manmohan when he was called ‘The Underachiever’ by ‘Time’ magazine. Only a few BJP leaders supported him.

A post is being shared on Facebook by many users claiming that BJP supported Manmohan Singh when he was criticized by the ‘Time’ magazine in 2012. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post

Claim: In 2012, when the ‘Time’ magazine called Manmohan Singh as “The Underachiever”, BJP has condemned it. But, in 2019, when the same magazine called PM Modi as “India’s Divider in Chief”. Congress party is backing the foreign media.    

Fact: The BJP as a party did not support Manmohan Singh. The ‘Time’ magazine story was used by the BJP to criticize Manmohan Singh. Ravi Shankar Prasad also demanded Singh’s resignation. But, few leaders like the then Madhya Pradesh’s CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Madhya Pradesh’s BJP President Prabhat Jha supported Manmohan Singh.  Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.   

When searched for the issue on Google with the keywords “BJP supports Manmohan the underachiever’, many newspaper articles on this issue come in the search results. According to some articles in India Today and The Hindu, BJP attacked the Congress showing the ‘Time’ magazine. BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad also held a press conference on this issue, where he criticized Manmohan for the corruption in his government. So, it is not true that BJP has not attacked Manmohan when ‘Time’ called Manmohan him “The Underachiever”

But, according to the Business Line article, few BJP leaders like Madhya Pradesh’s CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Madhya Pradesh’s BJP President Prabhat Jha supported Manmohan Singh. So, there are some individual leaders who supported him, but as a party, BJP criticized Manmohan using the ‘Time’ magazine’ story.

Below comments are taken from the Business Line article:

BJP leaders against Manmohan:

Ravi Shankar Prasad: “It is sad that India is perceived as the one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Dr Manmohan Singh’s Government is the most corrupt.”

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi: “Definitely, he is not an achiever…. All that he has achieved is corruption, scam and bad governance.”

BJP leaders supporting Manmohan:

Prabhat Jha: “No foreign magazine has a right to look down upon the Prime Minister of India”

Shivraj Singh Chouhan: “we do not need a certificate from a foreign media publication for our Prime Minister”

To sum it up, BJP attacked Manmohan when he was called ‘The Underachiever’ by ‘Time’ magazine. Only a few BJP leaders supported him.