20 September,2016 11:11 AM IST | | Agencies
More than three-fifth of Indians support use of military force to defeat the scourge of terrorism, according to a latest Pew Survey released on Monday which said that about half of the respondents disapprove of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Pakistan policy
Narendra Modi
Washington: More than three-fifth of Indians support use of military force to defeat the scourge of terrorism, according to a latest Pew Survey released yesterday which said that about half of the respondents disapprove of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Pakistan policy.
"With roughly half (52%) the Indian public worried that ISIS poses a major threat to their country, about six-in-ten Indians (62%) believe that overwhelming military force is the best way to defeat terrorism around the world. Just 21% say that relying too much on such force creates hatred that leads to more terrorism," said Pew Research Center in its report.
Disapprove PM's Pak policy
While 68% of the respondents feel that India is playing a more important role in the world than it was doing 10 years ago, the Pew Research Center in its annual survey, which was conducted among 2,464 respondents from April 7 to May 24, said half of the respondents disapprove of Modi's management of India's volatile relationship with Pakistan. His Pakistan policy is approved by just 22 %, said the survey which was conducted in the months after the terrorist attack at the Pathankot Air Force base coming from across the border. "Notably, however, more than half of BJP supporters (54%) and a plurality of Congress party adherents (45%) disapprove of Modi's handling of relations with Pakistan," the report said.
PM's approval rating at 87%
The survey said that Modi continues to ride a wave of good feeling (81%) about the way things are going in India, the state of the domestic economy and his own stewardship of the country. In 2015 Pew Survey, Modi's approval rating was 87%. Modi's favorable rating of 81% is followed by that of Sonia Gandhi (67%), Rahul Gandhi (63%) and Arvind Kejriwal (50%).
Modi has the lowest unfavorability rating of 16% followed by Arvind Kejriwal (27%), Sonia Gandhi (31%) and Rahul Gandhi (32%). In 2015 and 2016, his lowest approval rating (53%) was for his handling of communal relations.
