NEW DELHI, Dec 20:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged on top of the list when it comes to citizens approving the development strategy of their respective countries, piping other world leaders like US President Barack Obama and Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said a report by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
A report titled ‘Reflections on a Survey of Global Perceptions of International Leaders and World Powers’ by US based public affairs school illustrated how popular Mr Modi is domestically and globally.
The report, which asked citizens across 30 nations of the world to give their views on 10 influential leaders having a global impact has thrown up very interesting findings. The study indicates a massive 87.8 per cent approval for Mr Modi’s policies.
He comfortably pips other leaders like the US President (who is ranked 20th with 44.8 per cent), British Prime Minister David Cameron (ranked 15th with 51.5 Per cent) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (ranked 26th with 30.4 per cent). Respondents in India (87.8 per cent), Russia (79.6 per cent), and China (78.6 per cent) overwhelmingly said that their home country was moving in the right direction, while only a minority in the United States (44.8 per cent), Japan (30.4 per cent), and South Africa (29.3 per cent) felt their nation was making progress.
When it comes to domestic confidence on the leaders on handling domestic and international affairs (in the 10 key countries, identified as Russia, UK, China, France, US, Germany, Japan Brazil, India and South Africa), Mr Modi comes an impressive second, with a confidence rating of 93.2 per cent on handling of domestic affairs and 93.3 per cent on handling of international affairs.
Widen the list to thirty countries and the Prime Minister retains an impressive third spot, only behind German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The study describes Mr Modi as one of the four leaders who enjoy high levels of confidence in handling both domestic and international affairs. The other three on this ‘elite’ list are Ms Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The popularity of Mr Modi is greater than that of President Xi Jinping in 18 of the 30 nations where the survey took place. The general trend of this report was that leaders in full-fledged democracies received far lesser numbers as compared to other nations. Bucking this trend is Mr Modi, who not only leads the world’s largest democracy but also emerges as highly popular figure who has expanded the imprint of India at the global stage.
Since he took office in May 2014, Mr Modi has had a series of international visits whose outcomes corroborate the findings of this report from the Kennedy School. Mr Modi began by inviting all SAARC leaders to his oath taking ceremony. He became the Prime Minister to embark on a bilateral visit to Nepal in 17 years, Australia in 28 years and Fiji in 31 years. His visit to Japan gave a strong impetus to India-Japan ties and his visit to the US created tremendous goodwill and translated into concrete results that would benefit both nations. At the same time, Mr Modi played host to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Putin and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to name a few. These visits also covered substantial ground in taking forward bilateral relations. In the last six months, Mr Modi has addressed the UN and participated in crucial Summits such as the BRICS, G-20 and ASEAN Summit. (UNI)
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