After celebrating Pew's ratings, will BJP also endorse flak on communalism?

When a Union minister cites a foreign think-tank to buttress his government's record, what does it indicate? Does this infatuation with certificates of appreciation from foreign organisations indicate a lack of confidence in its own performance?

If that is indeed the case, then the Narendra Modi government must accept all findings of the latest Pew report, some of which show the government in bad light.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was at pains on 16 November to draw attention towards the results of the US-based Pew Research Centre's survey. Prasad identified the think-tank as “well reputed and credible” and found its survey “detailed”.

The reason for Prasad's glee was the headline-grabbing finding of the survey that 9 out of 10 respondents hold a favourable opinion of Modi and how the country is doing under him. On social media, the minister devoted at least nine tweets to the survey and its findings.

Clearly, Prasad was overjoyed at the survey's results.

However, he cleverly promoted only favourable findings and entirely overlooked the critical portions. As a more detailed reading of the results has shown, a large number of respondents have given the Modi-government thumbs-down on a few key fronts.

The most significant among these is the government’s record in handling communal relations. As compared to 88% of the respondents having a generally positive view of the Modi government, only 50% are happy with its handling of communal relations.

That is a telling commentary on the government against the background of continuous assaults on religious minorities being reported from across the country in the last three years. In some of these cases that attracted widespread attention, many of BJPs MLAs, MPs and even union ministers were found guilty of fanning communal passions.

The Pew survey found women particularly critical of how Modi has dealt with communal relations. More people in north India are critical of the government on this front than in the south. Also, rural population was found to be less supportive than people in urban areas.

Another area in which the Modi government has received low popularity ratings is its record in combating air pollution (48%). This comes just days after the union environment minister drew flak for downplaying the dangers of air pollution. Union Minister Harsh Vardhan had said that pollution was not fatal.

Lesser number of rural Indians approved of the government's performance in this direction than their urban counterparts. Rural Indians also have a lower opinion of the PM's handling of corruption than urban Indians.

In an indicator of continuing rural distress, rural Indians were generally found to me more inclined towards Congress (63%) than those in cities (51%).

All of these findings fly in the face of some of the Modi government’s most celebrated slogans, like “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas” and “ghareebon ki sarkar” and “kisaanon ki sarkar”.

Given the excitement with which the government and the governing party have welcomed the report, will they also endorse these findings?