THE MODI PHENOMENON

That Narendra Modi is a rare political phenomenon not just on the Indian political firmament but also in the world is becoming increasingly evident. How else do you explain the Indian prime minister’s continuing popularity even as the approval ratings of other leaders of the democratic world, be it Joe Biden of the US, Emmanuel Macron of France, Olaf Scholz of Germany, Justin Trudeau of Canada or Fumio Kishida of Japan, have taken a plunge.

This despite India’s economic growth having yet to return to pre-pandemic levels and mounting uncertainty and anxiety globally over a creeping economic recession brought on by the not-yet-over Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and now a brewing confrontation between China and the US over Taiwan. A global survey of 22 democratic countries by the US-based data intelligence company Morning Consult Political Intelligence released on August 4 put Modi’s approval ratings at 75 per cent, way ahead of five other leaders whose ratings also saw an increase, even as the rest of the pack dropped significantly in the popularity stakes (Biden’s ratings, for instance, have fallen to 38 per cent).

The latest Mood of the Nation (MOTN) survey, conducted by INDIA TODAY in association with CVoter, only reaffirms Modi’s dominant (his critics call it domineering) political presence in the country. Despite domestic economic woes, his popularity ratings touched 66 per cent, an increase of 12 percentage points from August 2021 though not quite the stratospheric high of 78 per cent in August 2020 before the ill effects of the pandemic had fully registered. Modi also continues to be regarded as the leader best suited to become the next prime minister at 53.4 per cent, which is head, shoulders and hips above his nearest opposition rivals Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal, both of whom attract single-digit approval. Even within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),