NEW
DELHI, June 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A British
journalist who wrote an article saying that the Indian Prime Minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee sleeps in cabinet meetings, may be deported by
the Indian government, a U.K. newspaper reported Monday, June 24.
India’s
Hindu nationalist government was last night poised to deport Alex
Perry, the New Delhi bureau chief for Time magazine. On Monday
the Indian authorities are expected to summon him to question him
about alleged passport irregularities, reported the Guardian.
Perry’s
woes began soon after his article, entitled “Asleep at the Wheel”,
appeared in Time’s international edition two weeks ago. It
questioned the 77-year-old Vajpayee's fitness to control India’s
nuclear arsenal at a time of a crisis with Pakistan, reported the
paper.
Vajpayee
had a weakness for fatty food, it said, took a “three-hour afternoon
snooze”, and often appeared “shaky and lost”. It also said he
forgot the names of colleagues, including his foreign minister Jaswant
Singh, the Guardian said.
Perry
has been given a hard time over the past week, the paper said. Indian
pro-government newspapers have launched a thinly disguised campaign of
vilification of Perry, and have published his address. In addition, he
has been accused by Indian home office officials of flouting visa
restrictions and having two British passports.
Time
magazine is also in hot water as the ruling Indian party, the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded an apology and has hinted
that Perry will be thrown out of India unless the magazine gives in,
the Guardian reported.
The
last journalist to be kicked out of India was Sir Mark Tully, the
former BBC bureau chief, who was expelled from New Delhi in 1975 by
India’s then-prime minister Indira Gandhi. She later let him come
back
