Pew survey says Narendra Modi enjoys popular backing, but people want more from his govt

The survey indicates that citizens want the government to step up its game and perform, and there are warning signs that if it fails to do so, democratic form of governance in India may give way to either autocracy or military rule. According to PEW, “Respondents are classified as ‘committed’ if they support a system in which elected representatives govern but do not support rule by experts, a strong leader or the military while those who say a representative democracy is good but also support at least one nondemocratic form of government are classified as ’less-committed’ or shallow.” If the first two indicators appear mutually incompatible, that anomaly is explained when we look at another set of data, that indicates “people who identify with the current governing party or parties are significantly more satisfied with their political system than those who either support the opposition or identify with no political party”. PEW finds that while 85 percent Indians trust their “national government to do what is right for the country” and “75 percent Indian back representative democracy,” a staggering 55 percent “favor autocracy” and 27 percent “very strongly back a strong leader” who can make decisions without interference from Parliament or the courts. Therefore, in PEW’s findings that “roughly half of Indians say military rule would be a good thing for their countries” should serve as a warning for India which has experienced undeterred civilian rule since Independence compared to other south Asian peers. Autocratic rulers in Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and Chile produced similar quick turnabouts in their economies by making radical changes that usually involved a greater role for the private sector and private business.” Becker also added a word of caution, that “the other side of autocratic rule is that badly misguided strong leaders can cause major damage”, but trappings of economic prosperity can blind us to danger ahead.