Are you imitating or emulating or competing with Time magazine? Using the Time format for your cover does not befit you. While Manmohan Singh can influence only Sonia Gandhi, Obama can influence the entire world. Obama has put in a lot of hard work to become the first Black president to occupy the White House. Manmohan Singh is the prime minister only because of Sonia G’s grace.
S. Raghunatha Prabhu, Alappuzha
Your cover was so Anu Malik in terms of originality.
Jasjeet Shergill, on e-mail
Shame on you Outlook. All I can say, Govinda-style, is: Tujhe mirchi lage to mai kya karoon!
Pramod Khulbe, Phoenix
A rather pathetic attempt at getting back at Time. History will judge Obama to be an effective and visionary president. He has to face an opposition (the Republicans) whose obstructionism can shame the BJP. His effort in getting health benefits for millions of Americans without health insurance is commendable. In comparison, our PM has not shown any leadership either within the party or in leading India. He has appeared helpless when confronted with major crises.
V.N. Venugopal, New Delhi
Very childish of Outlook. Wiser are those who learn from their own mistakes, not by counting the failures of others.
M.C. Joshi, Lucknow
Cheap publicity stunt. If the American economy is doing so badly, why is the dollar still holding up against the euro and most other currencies, including our rupee?
Krishanu Kalita, Namrup, Assam
Americans aghast at Outlook cover depicting their president as an underachiever! Mitt Romney making it a talking point in his coming debates with Obama! Democrats in Virginia burning Outlook copies! The cover of an Indian magazine becoming a hot issue in the US presidential elections of 2012! What were you thinking, Outlook?
An Outlook reader, on e-mail
However much you deny that your cover is tit-for-tat journalism, its packaging left one in doubt. This implies that we take the assessment of the West seriously and retaliate when we don’t like those assessments.
Mohit Salhotra, New York
What next? David Cameron as the Queen’s poodle?
Ashutosh Kaul, Toronto
Indeed, both Obama and Manmohan have performed poorly. Obama, however, succeeded in ridding the world of two very dangerous men—Osama bin Laden and Muammar Gaddafi. India’s yet to get hold of the 26/11 masterminds.
V.T. Krishnadas Menon, on e-mail
Kudos to Outlook for its scathing tit-for-tat vis-a-vis Time. I’d call Obama a great achiever only if he were able to topple the world’s No. 1 autocratic regime, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and pull out America from the abyss it’s in.
K.P. Rajan, Mumbai
This confirms that Outlook is a Congress mouthpiece.
Novonil Guha, on e-mail
And to think Vinod Mehta, in his last diary (Jul 23), said the Indian media had overreacted to Time’s cover.
Ayoung Konyak, Kohima
It’s easy to call the leader of another country an underachiever. Will any Indian magazine have the guts to call their own leader an underachiever? As Indira Gandhi once said, the media in India was free, that’s why she could afford it!
T.R. Ramaswami, Mumbai
The Outlook cover is in keeping with our really low tolerance towards hearing what we know ourselves but don’t like others saying. Extremely childish.
Jaisal, Jaipur
Rather than repaying Time in the same coin, Outlook could have done a balanced counterpiece on Manmohan. Declaring Obama too as an underachiever does not make our prime minister stronger or weaker. If Time is becoming a poodle of the US government, why is Outlook trying to be a chamcha of the UPA?
Raghavendra Nath Misra, New Delhi
Wow, what a Time-ly cover, sirji!
Dipak Banerjee, on e-mail
Time’s tag of underachiever is still an honour for a lameduck PM who’s failed the nation on every count.
Anil Shandilya, New Delhi
Both Manomhan and Obama have been huge disappointments. But the former at least was devoid of hype.
Santosh John Samuel, Kochi
Wake up and smell the coffee, Time. What you can do, we can do better.
Jeyarine Rao, on e-mail
Obama’s alleged underachievemet is nowhere as near the bottom of the barrel as Manmohan’s.
Ganesh Natrajan, Isere, France
There is no similitude between the US and India, Obama and Manmohan, their personalities, their tasks in hand, their statecraft or measures on which they can be judged. Nor can Outlook ever be Time.
Manish Banerjee, Calcutta
Looks like there is an acute dearth of ideas in Outlook.
Haridasan Mathilakath, Mumbai
