Bhim Army Chief Azad in TIME Magazine’s 100 Emerging Leaders List

“Everyone on this list is poised to make history,” said Dan Macsai, the editorial director of the TIME100.

Image of Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad, used for representational purposes.

(Photo: Altered by Arnica Kala/The Quint)

Bhim Army Chief Chandra Shekhar Azad, as well as five Indian-origin personalities, have made it to this year’s TIME magazine list of 100 “emerging leaders who are shaping the future.”

The Indian-origin personalities who have made the list, as per PTI, are:

• Twitter’s top lawyer Vijaya Gadde
• UK’s finance minister Rishi Sunak
• Instacart founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta
• Doctor and Executive Director of nonprofit Get Us PPE Shikha Gupta
• Founder of nonprofit Upsolve Rohan Pavuluri

Dan Macsai, the editorial director of the TIME100, said:

“Everyone on this list is poised to make history. And, in fact, many already have.”

WHAT DOES TIME MAGAZINE SAY ABOUT CHANDRASHEKHAR AZAD?

“Chandra Shekhar Azad, 34, is a Dalit – a member of India’s most oppressed caste group,” writes TIME Magazine about the Bhim Army Chief. The magazine further goes on to say:

“The movement he leads, the Bhim Army, runs schools to help Dalits escape poverty through education. It also practices a distinct brand of assertiveness, sweeping into villages on loud motorbikes to protect victims of caste-based violence and organising provocative demonstrations against discrimination.”

The magazine also points out: “He (Azad) hopes to turn the reach of the Bhim Army –and his own growing popularity – into wins at the ballot box, and in March 2020 launched a political party.”

“Its first real test comes during elections next year in Uttar Pradesh, where Hindu nationalists are politically dominant. Despite the Bhim Army’s muscular stance, Aazad has also cultivated an aura of charismatic approachability through deft use of social media; even Azad’s luxuriant mustache – a style seen by some dominant castes as a status symbol – is a form of resistance,” it added.

(With inputs from PTI)