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Anand Mohan Sahay in Patna
Samata Party leaders Nitish Kumar, who is also the Union Minister for Railways, and Digvijay Singh strongly condemned an article on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's private life in the US based Time magazine terming it as an 'attempt to humiliate India'.
"Samata Party strongly condemns the article published in the Time magazine about Prime Minister Vajpayee's personal life and demands a public apology from the magazine," Kumar, supported by Digvijay Singh, said.
Both the leaders said on Monday that the national executive of the Samata Party, which met in Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday, passed a resolution condemning the article.
Kumar said that it is not proper for any newspaper or magazine to publish an article targeting private life with 'baseless facts'.
"The Time article denigrates the post of the prime minister and India of over 100 million people," Kumar said.
Kumar said that we never expect such writing from Indian media because 'Indian media is a responsible media'.
"We know that we are living in a free and democratic society but it hardly means that anyone is free to publish anything about any one," he said.
Meanwhile, an external affairs ministry spokesperson said that India has taken strong exception to the Time article, terming it as 'completely biased' and 'baseless'.
"Our views in this regard have been made known to the editor," she said told reporters when her comments were sought on the article, which among other things makes references to Vajpayee's health.
"It certainly doesn't fall into the category of the kind of reporting expected from Time magazine," she said.
She said, "It (the article) is completely without foundation. It is baseless, ill-advised, completely biased and ill-informed."
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