The survey on Indian leadership and foreign policy conducted by the US-based Pew Research Centre (PRC), which concluded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity remains high, did not include Kerala, the northeastern States, Jammu and Kashmir and certain other parts of the country for a variety of reasons.
At a public event to discuss the report, Bruce Stokes, director, Global Economic Attitudes, PRC, said certain parts of the country were excluded for reasons related to “safety” and “sensitivities”.
“Modi’s overwhelming popularity extends across India. At least nine in 10 Indians in the southern States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana and in the western States of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh hold a favourable view of the Prime Minister. Since 2015, Modi’s popularity is relatively unchanged in the north, has risen in the west and the south, and is down slightly in the east,” says the report which was presented by Mr. Stokes at a think tank here.
Respondents’ safety
Though the report makes general claims about “across India” popularity and approval of the government’s handling of issues such as Pakistan and the economy, Mr. Stokes said it was necessary to keep certain areas of the country out.
“In the past some respondents from Kerala were arrested. So we usually take safety of respondents into consideration in the course of the methodology for the survey.” He said safety issues in Northeast India similarly prompted the organisation to exclude the crucial region from the survey.
Significantly, while the survey concluded that Indians seek a hardline approach to the Kashmir issue, it did not include the State itself in the survey.
