Hating PM Modi a pre-requisite at New York Times? Bizarre job description triggers row

The New York Times has posted an entry-level job requirement on their website and on LinkedIn. The opening was for a South Asia Business Correspondent in New Delhi, but the NYT was very specific about the qualities it was looking for in the candidates - being anti-Hindu and anti-Modi.

In their ad posted on Thursday, the New York Times seems to be appealing to candidates who can write against the democratically elected government of India and contribute to a discourse that raises questions about propagandist journalism.

At the very beginning of the job posting, NY Times mentioned how India is poised to surpass China in terms of its population and how India has “ambitions of winning a greater voice on the world stage”. 

It goes on to state that India, under its ‘charismatic prime minister’, Narendra Modi “has moved to rival China’s economic and political heft in Asia - a drama playing out along their tense border and within national capitals across the region.”

The government’s advisor Kanchan Gupta on Thursday took strong objection to the New York Times’ bizarre job description, which reveals its visceral hatred for India and its democratically elected leader PM Narendra Modi.

Taking to Twitter, Gupta said the NYT has' dropped all pretences of impartiality with this job ad for a South Asia Correspondent.' "They are clearly looking to hire an anti-Modi activist who can also stoke anti-India sentiments in our neighbourhood. With this, the paper qualifies as a foreign-funded NGO." he tweeted.

The job description makes it clear that an instinctive hatred for Hindus and Narendra Modi is also a prerequisite to get the job. NYT describes the Prime Minister of India as one who advocates “self-sufficient, muscular nationalism, centred on the country’s Hindu majority”.

It goes on to state that the government’s growing efforts to police online speech and media discourse ‘have raised difficult questions about balancing issues of security and privacy with free speech.’ 

Such elements included in a job description indicate that NYT is looking to hire journalists with a clear ideological bent and those who would openly bring in a strong element of anti-Hindu bias in their coverage.

They also seem to be completely fine with employing people with a criminal past. As per the job opening, NYT is ready to consider qualified applicants, “including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local Fair Chance laws.”