Indian publisher lands in fix for featuring Hitler as great leader' on cover

An Indian publisher of a children’s book has drawn flak after featuring a book on ‘Great Leaders’ that included a photo of Adolf Hitler on its cover.

An outraged organisation questioned publisher B Jain’s Pegasus division of incorporating the picture and asked them to pull the book from stores and its online site.

Speaking about it to Washington Post, Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said, “Placing Hitler alongside truly great political and humanitarian leaders is an abomination that is made worse as it targets young people with little or no knowledge of world history.”

In addition to Hitler, the book’s cover has photos of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Barack Obama and Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

A blurb on the back of the 2016 book says its purpose is to “focus on some of these powerful world leaders who have dedicated their lives to the betterment of their countries.”

The rabbi said a member of the Los Angeles center bought a copy of “Great Leaders” at the Krithi International Book Fair in Cochin, India — a southwestern port city that has been home to Jews for centuries.

On its part, the publisher has defended the move saying that like the others featured in the list, Hitler’s “leadership skills and speeches influenced masses.” According to a New York Times report, Annshu Juneja, a publishing manager at the imprint, also said: “We are not talking about his way of conduct or his views or whether he was a good leader or a bad leader but simply portraying how powerful he was as a leader.”