The findings of the surveys are really unbelievable. Morning Consult, a US-based global data intelligence firm, said the Indian Prime Minister has a net approval rating of 80 per cent on May 4, up from 76 on January 7, and his popularity with citizens is the highest among all global leaders. Another poll by television channel Times Now and ORMAX Media on May 9 found Modi's popularity grew from 7.1 per cent to 7.9 per cent between April and May 2020. A survey by Times of India says that 93.5 per cent of those surveyed felt Modi was handling the virus crisis effectively.

Media has undertaken this task when its own role has come under public scanner. The least said about these surveys is better. How the Indian media has turned jingoist and promoting the hatred and communal politics of the BJP and RSS has been condemned not only in India but abroad. Media functioning has helped it earn the nick name of “GODI” media.

There is no least doubt Indian media has been serving the interest of the capitalists. For them the common people of this country especially the poor and labourers are worse than the beasts. Their survey basically draws its narrative from the views expressed by around 3000 people. Who are these people? The surveys are no more than table work.

They eulogise Modi for his role in tackling the corona crisis. But the fact is he has miserably failed in leading the country in its fight against corona. More than 15 crores people lost their livelihood for his wrong handling of the crisis. He threw the poor labourers on the streets at the mercy of the God.

The nature and character of the survey would have been quite different if these media houses would have sought the views of the common people. But that would have not served the interest of Modi. The Indians who have suffered the most under the lockdown, migrant labourers were not part of these surveys

The battle to retain the tag of India's most popular leader is an uphill task for Modi when billions have lost their jobs and small businesses have been shattered. Millions of poor labourers have to starve and had to walk thousands of km to go back to their native places. In the process nearly 120 labourers lost their lives either on roads on railway tracks. How can the country ignore and forget that the big business and corporate houses, all good friends of Modi, did not take care of them and provide food to the starving workers?

This is for the first time in the history of the Independent India the poor and loubrers were treated with utter contempt and disdain and shown their place by the rightist and capitalist rulers. This is also a warning to the middle class, which has been feeling ebullient. The fact is they are facing a bleak future. With labourers withdrawing from the cities and work place, the corporate and industrial houses would be finding it tough to operate. The labourers who had gone back are sceptical to return in near future.

What made the media houses to undertake the study is certainly not inexplicable. Modi was facing serious crisis of credibility, just before the coronavirus arrived in India, has been a known affair. The situation of trust deficit was created by him as well as by his close aide Amit Shah. The hatred campaign against the Muslims and targeting them during the Hindu-Muslim riots in Delhi just as Donald Trump was visiting Gujarat simply exploded on his face. The crisis further deepened with the sharp slumping of the economy and India facing the worst unemployment scenario.

The massive surfacing of the dreaded corona virus simply shook the trust of the people in him. It virtually acquired the character of cataclysm for his failure to effectively fight the corona onslaught. It was for the first time the Congress was on the front foot in targeting him. While Sonia Gandhi accused him of being "uncertain" about how to fight corona Rahul Gandhi charged him for the failure of lockdown in curtailing the rise of corona. Sonia Gandhi on Friday said that the government does not have any exit strategy. She said the migrants and 13 crore families in the bottom half of population have been cruelly ignored.

It is a known fact that Modi has an acute obsession for his image and it was in this backdrop the study with the sole aim to project him as the most charismatic leader was undertaken by some media houses.

In their euphoria they forgot the fundamentals which are resorted to while carrying out public studies. All the surveys projected him as bigger leader having higher rating than Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US president Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Morning Consult has based its finding on the interviews of only 3000 Indians out of the total population of 137 crores. Surprisingly these polls show that Modi's ratings have soared even higher, touching 80 per cent, even 90 per cent. Unlike two of the populist leaders to whom he is often compared, Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Modi is weathering this crisis quite well.

A leader is judged from the vision he has about the economic and social growth and development of his country. Modi is not tired of claiming that the growth trajectory of the country was quite robust, but the growth indices paint critical picture. In the current financial year the growth in the fourth quarter will be quite minimal. The economists project a negative growth for the year 2020-21 with massive fall in output in the current April-June quarter.
(IPA Service)