Coronavirus Survey: Despite Lockdown Woes, Faith in Modi Govt High

According to CVoter’s Coronavirus Tracker, 66% respondents “Strongly Agree” that Modi govt is handling crisis well.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, 25 March, interacted with the people of his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi amid nationwide lockdown in the wake of coronavirus outbreak.

(Photo: The Quint)

It’s not just coronaviru but even the lockdown imposed because of it is taking a toll on the Indian public. As of Monday, 30 March, 29 people have died of the virus and according to reports, 22 migrants have died trying to reach their respective homes.

Despite the acute economic and logistical distress caused by the lockdown, support for the Narendra Modi government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis remains high, according to a survey conducted by CVoter.

Conducted on 26-27 March, this is the second phase of CVoter’s Coronavirus tracker, with the first one having been completed on 17-18 March.

On being asked by the survey agency what they thought of the statement “The Indian government is handling the Coronavirus crisis well”, 66.4 percent respondents said that they “strongly agree”, 17.1 percent respondents said that they “Agree”, 4.7 percent said that they “disagree” and an identical proportion of people said that they “strongly disagree”.

Last week, The Quint had reported that satisfaction with the government’s handling of the Coronavirus crisis was among the highest, compared to the other 21 countries surveyed.

In the first phase of the survey, 58.2 percent respondents had said “strongly agree” when asked if the government was handling the crisis well.

Regarding the lockdown itself, a majority of respondents said that it is being followed diligently in their area.

65.2 percent respondents said that the lockdown is being followed “completely”, 19.7 percent said that it is being followed “to a great extent”, 11.3 percent said that it is being followed “to some extent’ while just 2.6 percent respondents said that it isn’t being followed at all.

Why Support for Modi Govt’s Handling Remains High

One reason could be the fact that in the last one week, acknowledgement of the seriousness of the coronavirus threat has also increased.

According to the survey, 48.3 percent of the respondents said that it is possible that they or their families could get infected by coronavirus, as against 39.1 percent in the survey conducted on 17-18 March.

On the other hand, the proportion of people who said that they or their family would not get affected by the virus reduced from 59.5 percent to 46.5 percent.

Similarly, the proportion of respondents who felt that the threat of coronavirus is being exaggerated reduced from 59.7 percent on 17-18 March to 44.3 percent on 26-27 March.

With an increasing perception of threat, it is natural for people to express faith in the government despite the difficulties being caused due to the lockdown.