Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 30: Even as United States-based research centre released a survey report claiming that over 80 per cent of the Indians have favourable view of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a latest BJP poster depicts him as the fictional cyborg character “terminator” with the caption “2024! I’ll be back!”
Ahead of opposition bloc INDIA’s meeting in Mumbai from Thursday, the BJP on Wednesday tweeted the poster depicting Modi as Arnold Schwarzenegger-starrer ‘Terminator’ film franchise, with a twist to his famous dialogue, “2024! I’ll be back!” a dig at the opposition’s attempt to put up a united fight to take on the BJP in the general elections next year.
The caption accompanying the poster, which was shared on the BJP’s official social media accounts, read: “Opposition thinks PM Modi can be defeated. Dream on! The Terminator always wins.” The race for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has intensified, with both the BJP and the opposition INDIA bloc announcing strategy meetings in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1, respectively.
The Washington-based PEW Research Centre releasing on Wednesday its survey report ahead of the G-20 Summit in New Delhi, said about 80 per cent of Indians have a favourable view of Modi and around seven in 10 Indians believe their country has recently become more influential.
The survey also noted that public opinion of India was generally positive across the world with a median of 46 per cent reporting favourable views of India as compared to 34 per cent unfavourable views. Sixteen per cent did not share an opinion at all. Views of India are most positive in Israel, where 71 per cent say they have a favourable view of the country, the report said.
Pew said the survey was conducted from February 20 to May 22, among 30,861 adults in 24 countries, including 2,611 from India, to examine global views of Prime Minister Modi, the scope of India’s global power and Indians’ views of other countries.
About eight in 10 Indians report “favourable” views of PM Modi, including a majority (55 per cent) with a “very favourable” view. Only a fifth of Indians expressed an unfavourable opinion of Modi in 2023. Responding to the results of the Pew survey, the BJP said the popularity of Modi had remained intact.
“The popularity of Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi certainly remains intact! Majority of people in India and across the world believe that India’s global influence is getting stronger!” the official handle of BJP said in a post on platform X. It added that the Pew survey “stands as a testament to the above statements.”
“Indian adults are more likely to believe India’s power is on the rise. Around seven in ten Indians believe their country has recently become more influential. This stands in comparison with a 2022 survey conducted across 19 countries, where a median of only 28 per cent said the same,” Pew said.
According to the report, about half of Indians (49 per cent) say that the influence of the US is getting stronger in recent years, and 41 per cent say the same about Russia. Meanwhile, Indians’ views on China’s influence are somewhat more mixed, it said.
As for the coming Parliamentary elections, the 26-party opposition INDIA bloc will hold a two-day meeting in Mumbai starting Thursday to discuss their strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP-led Maharashtra government has also announced a two-day review meeting of all 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Discussions on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will first be held at Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s official residence in Mumbai on Thursday. The meeting will be attended by Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, and other senior leaders.