Ipsos Mori one of the leading research organization, in a global poll conducted on 7th October 2016 (before demonetisation) found out that about 76% of the people in India, the highest in a democratic country felt that their country is on the right track. What makes this poll even more interesting is that out of the 25 countries polled, majority of the people in as many as 19 countries including US, Japan, Germany and Great Britain felt that their country was heading in the ‘wrong’ direction.
India is in third position behind China and Saudi Arabia but as many reports suggest the sense of fear the Chinese feel about going against the establishment may suggest that people weren’t speaking with a free mind during the survey.
To take things a step further, we decided to compare this poll with that of polls of the same agency in earlier years to gauge whether sentiments have indeed changed over time. While the exact poll wasn’t conducted many similar polls were indeed conducted in the past few years.
Going back all the way to May 2010 before scams like 2G, CWG and Coalgate were at the forefront, almost 85% of Indians assessed their current economic situation as good which was the highest among all polled countries.
As compared to that in April 2013 when the whole scams fiasco had played out and as acknowledged by Chidambaram, UPA was paying a price for high inflation, the number of people describing the economy as good had dropped down to 66% a drop of about 19%.
As compared to the drop, in a survey carried out from May 2nd to 20th in 2014 it was found that there was a 6% upswing in a month after Modi was elected PM.
So even though the comparisons may not be like for like,, we seem to have encountered a 10% growth in positive emotions from May 2014 to October 2016, the figure which might change either for the good or worse if and when a survey will be carried out in the post demonetization era.