In Modi We Trust...

The biannual survey reveals that the prime minister is still regarded as the best bet for the job, but serious concerns remain

- Raj Chengappa

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things,” Niccolò Machiavelli wrote in his treatise The Prince. Midway through his second term as prime minister, Narendra Modi must make a decisive shift in priorities to lift the nation out of the economic morass it has sunk into, and set it firmly on the path to prosperity. He must also use the remaining years of his term to become the great unifier of the country—to achieve the kind of new order that Machiavelli was referring too.

These are the two key takeaways emerging from the January 2022 edition of the India Today-CVoter biannual Mood of the Nation (MOTN) poll, with respondents reiterating their belief that Narendra Modi remains the best bet for the job. That faith stems from the way the prime minister has so far handled the triad of crises before the nation—the unprecedented and prolonged Covid pandemic, an economy in a shambles and a dangerous border confrontation with China.

Modi’s personal popularity sees an uptick this MOTN, with 62.8 per cent of respondents rating his performance as good to outstanding, compared to 54 per cent in August 2021. This is still some distance from the phenomenal 78 per cent approval that the prime minister garnered in August 2020, at the peak of the first wave of Covid. However, it does not diminish their trust in Modi’s ability to deliver.