Monday Musings: The Annual List of Top 100 Looks Like an April Fool’s Joke
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By Amitabh Srivastava, Copy Edited By Adam Rizvi, The India Observer, TIO: Like The New York Times in the USA, The Indian Express in India has been bringing out a list of the top 100 most powerful people in the country.
With its glorious history of journalism as it should be—especially its stand during the Emergency, which the BJP will not let us forget—The Indian Express holds a highly venerable place among my generation of journalists that was born 75 years ago. 
A person like me, who joined the Hindustan Times group during the Emergency, had to rush to The Indian Express to get our stories published.
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I vividly remember their Chief Reporter asking me, “Aren’t you ashamed working with the Hindustan Times?”
I said, “Yes, I am, but I am 26, and I need a job.”
I did try to get into The Indian Express later, but unfortunately, those were tumultuous times for the paper, and Mr. Arun Shourie, who was to decide about me, was unceremoniously shown the door by the then-owners.
That’s history, and I would say with full honesty that The Indian Express has maintained its place among the best investigative newspapers, despite changes in the country’s political leadership.
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However, bringing out the “List of Most Powerful Indians” is not just about political guts; it’s about the perception of what constitutes power for a group of journalists in a newspaper. But it’s also a marketing exercise, and if the front page tells you that the collection is “Powered by the Uttarakhand Government,” one smells a rat.
Does that mean the Uttarakhand Government Media Department vetted this 120-page edition, just as other government departments like Delhi Tourism and Madhya Pradesh Tourism—welcoming you on the first page—must have done?
Which means, in practical terms, that it’s a marketing feature. It’s not an editorial feature but what they now call an “Advertorial” feature.
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No wonder I, and many more like me, have a problem with the logic behind the ratings, which is almost idolatry for the leaders of the ruling BJP and the industrialists while mocking and making light of others.
Narendra Modi topping the list and Amit Shah being Number 2 was expected, even by the most virulent critics. But S. Jaishankar at No. 3 in the power list is not acceptable.
He has been a very vocal Foreign Minister, but is that because he comes from the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, where debating is a skill?
Those of us who have seen Sushma Swaraj in action as Foreign Minister—or in any capacity, even as Opposition Leader—will remember what a combative and respected leader she was, fluent in both Hindi and English.
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It seems Jaishankar has been given so much importance by Prime Minister Narendra Modi only to shift attention to foreign affairs because there was not much to boast of on the domestic front since 2014.
But even given his gift of the gab, placing him at Number 3 ahead of Rajnath Singh, Yogi Adityanath, and even Mohan Bhagwat—despite all the humiliation heaped on India by Donald Trump and Elon Musk—just does not make sense.
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To balance its openly biased coverage, the list places Rahul Gandhi at No. 9, which is creditable but not for the reasons given by the Indian Express team. It claims that Rahul Gandhi is at Slot 9 because he is the Leader of the Opposition after a gap of more than a decade.
Rahul remains the only leader in the country who has been vociferously opposing the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since he entered active politics. The BJP even set up an IT Cell targeting him daily, attempting to portray him as a clown (Pappu), yet people listen to him very seriously. No other Opposition leader matches his status globally.
The fact that all three Gandhi family leaders—Rahul, his sister Priyanka Gandhi, and their mother Sonia Gandhi—are in Parliament is the biggest snub to the BJP’s mockery of dynastic politics.
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Industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani at Numbers 10 and 11 have been the target of Rahul Gandhi’s barbs for the last 11 years. Even firebrand leaders like Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, have been advised to go slow on them by their marketing gurus.
But what is Piyush Goyal, the Minister for Commerce and Industry, doing at Number 12, posing on the same page as Adani? That beats me.
And finally, even going by the logic of the marketing guys, what is Amitabh Bachchan, the Star of the Millennium, doing at Rank 99? It’s just not palatable.
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Even if he hasn’t had a single film release in the last year, his face is probably the most visible on TV—much more than Baba Ramdev, who has gone low-profile after the Supreme Court pulled down several of his ads for misleading consumers.
Baba Ramdev today is no match for Amitabh Bachchan, who has touched millions of families through his Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) show—the longest-running television show in India.
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In the 1990s, when Amitabh Bachchan suffered heavy financial losses, KBC and his Pulse Polio campaign created such an impact that he made a miraculous comeback. Not only did it revive his financial fortunes, but it also cemented his position as a household name, making his brand even stronger.
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Curated and Compiled by Humra Kidwai
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