Lines criticizing PM Manmohan Singh found in Outlook’s “The Underachiever” cover story on Obama

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Brothers by virtue of underachievement

Even as Outlook magazine’s tit-for-tat cover story depicting Barack Obama as the ‘The Underachiever’ on the cover of its latest issue hits the stands, the story has already made news for all the wrong reasons. The magazine, seemingly hitting back at the TIME magazine for a similar cover story on Dr. Manmohan Singh, seems to have shot itself in the foot, after a number of lines and phrases from the TIME story were found in its article in what seems like a cut-copy-paste job gone horribly wrong.

“It is high time the Indian Prime Minister Barack Obama pulls up his socks and puts an end to the growing woes of inflation, corruption and unemployment that threaten to derail the Indian economy” was the first of the gaffes. Another one read, “In stark contrast, US President Dr. Manmohan Singh has successfully pushed through ambitious legislation to increase the affordability and accessibility of health-care in the the United States of India.” Yet another one read, “As an American citizen, one really wishes that Barack Obama stops being a puppet in the hands of Congress president Michelle Obama and pulls America back from the brink.”

The discovery has left TIME magazine’s managing editor Richard Stengel perplexed. “Dude, do I sue these guys for plagiarism or do I consider it as banter and let it go? I’ve no clue what I’m gonna do about this, except for laughing my ass off I guess!” he guffawed.

Back in India, CNN-IBN founder Rajdeep Sardesai tweeted “Ouch! How embarrassing! The authors must’ve either written this one while having Old Monk or while talking to Sagarika. I’ve been there!”

Outlook editor Krishna Prasad has played down the errors. “Look, the article was not meant to be taken seriously in the first place. More like a tongue in cheek piece. Not like Americans are gonna read it anyway. But yeah, in hindsight, should have hired college students or software engineers to do this copy-paste work,” Mr Prasad disclosed to The Unreal Times.

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