Over 60% Indians satisfied with Modi govt, says study

Three out of five Indians are satisfied with Narendra Modi government’s performance even though a majority finds it sliding on most parameters measuring their economic well-being, a survey conducted by LocalCircles indicates.

Tuesday, May 16, marks the third anniversary of the NDA’s victory in the Lok Sabha elections. Over 40,000 respondents registered on the LocalCircles website that received 2,00,000 votes from over 200 cities.

The NDA government, in the first three years of its tenure, either met or exceeded expectations of 61% of the people while 59% were of the view that it is well on track to fulfil pre-poll promises.

This was despite the negative sentiments people had about the government’s performance on crucial parameters, including job creation, prices of essential commodities and cost of living, healthcare facilities and services, crime against women and children, cleanliness in cities and the effect of demonetisation in reducing corruption.

Of the missions the government has launched, direct benefit transfer (DBT) got the highest approval (47%) and Make in India the lowest (8%).

The areas in which the Modi government scored high in the survey were foreign policy, especially vis-à-vis Pakistan, handling of issues relating to communalism, infrastructure development and performance in Parliament in terms of delivery on key bills.

While 81% respondents felt that India’s image and influence in the world had improved, 64% respondents approved of the way the government has dealt with Pakistan, a significant increase since last year when this figure stood at 34%.

About 51% said that the government’s demonetisation exercise, which scrapped high-value banknotes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in November last year, was successful in cracking down on black money.

 

The fact that a majority of citizens expressed satisfaction with the performance of the government despite their poor rating of schemes that have a direct bearing on their daily life seemed to reflect the trust people still repose in Prime Minister Modi. The survey report came as an indictment of parliamentarians, with 69% citizens saying that their elected MPs did not engage in addressing issues of their constituencies.

This was the third annual survey on the government’s performance by LocalCircles. Compared to last year, there was a marginal fall in the percentage of people who said the NDA government met their expectations — from 46% to 44% — while dissatisfaction rose by 3% to 36%. “Overall, as change hasn’t come fast enough for most people, there is a decline in citizens’ rating of the government in most areas compared to last year,” stated LocalCircles.

Only 28% of the citizens believed that the prices of essential commodities came down for them, as against 38% last year. “This means there is a difference between citizens’ perception and official inflation indicators,” said the survey agency.