Another Twitter user, Abhishek Baxi, posted a picture of the 2014 and 2019 cover and said, 'India Today. World tomorrow.'

Congress leader Salman Nizami compared the Time Magazine covers from 2014, 2015 and 2019. He captioned it, ‘Modi’s achievement in 5 years’.

Twitter remained divided with Modi supporters lashing out and categorically denouncing the story while others lauded the story.

Time magazine featured Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the cover of its international edition with a controversial headline, 'India's Divider in Chief,' and a second one that read 'Modi the Reformer.'

The article 'India's Divider in Chief' was penned by Aatish Taseer, son of Indian journalist Tavleen Singh and late Pakistani politician and businessman Salmaan Taseer.

The article ‘Modi the Reformer’ is authored by Ian Bremmer, president and founder of the Eurasia Group, a global political risk research firm.

In his article, novelist Aatish Taseer wonders if India can ‘endure another five years of a Modi government’.

Taseer's article notes that 'If in 2014 Modi was able to exploit differences in order to create a climate of hope, in 2019 he is asking people to stave off their desperation by living for their differences alone.'

'Then he was a messiah, ushering in a future too bright to behold, one part Hindu renaissance, one part South Korea's economic programme. Now he is merely a politician who has failed to deliver, seeking re-election. Whatever else might be said about the election, hope is off the menu,' he says.

Ian Bremmer, looking more kindly at Modi's prime ministership argued that Modi is “India’s best hope” for economic reform.

Outlining the achievements of the Modi-led government, Bremmer talks about the Goods and Services Tax enacted in 2017, the 'unprecedented amounts' of money directed towards the country's new infrastructure, expansion of the Aadhaar biometric identification system that began under the previous Congress-led government.

'Modi has the instinct to dominate and the thin skin of other strongmen, but he also has a genuine track record in providing the kind of reform that developing India urgently needs,' Bremmer writes.

An overwhelming number of social media users responded to Time magazine's tweet with just one word.

A few hours after Time’s latest cover was unveiled, “India’s Divider in Chief” began trending on Twitter.

In 2015, the magazine had featured Modi on its cover, with the title “Why Modi Matters”. It had also carried an interview with the prime minister.

The difference between the most recent cover story and the one published in 2014 is stark.

Political commentator Dhruv Rathee posted the covers from 2015 and 2019 and said, “From a hope for Indians, he has become what his supporters would call the Tukde Tukde Chief - a man who divided India.”

The BJP on Saturday slammed the Time magazine article as an attempt to malign Modi's image, accusing its author of pursuing Pakistan's agenda. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra called the prime minister a unifier and listed a number of welfare measures started by the Modi government that would lead the country towards a new future.

AAP leader, Preeti Sharma Menon quoted a line from the Taseer's article and called out the Modi bhakts.

Modi's supporters outright rejected the article’s argument that another term for Modi would spell the end of the Indian democracy.

Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha taunted the BJP for the success of the #DividerInChief hashtag.