New Delhi: As 43 ministers were sworn-in Wednesday evening — 15 into the Modi Cabinet, the remaining 28 as ministers of state — a survey revealed that a majority of Indians do not believe new ministers equal better governance.
According to the survey by LocalCircles, a community social media platform, only 2 per cent Indians said that more ministers will deliver better governance while the same proportion of people said that it will be achieved by more bureaucrats or “more ministers as well as more bureaucrats”.
A total of 12 ministers resigned ahead of the reshuffle by PM Modi and this included prominent ministers like Ravi Shankar Prasad (Law and IT), Dr Harsh Vardhan (Health) and Ramesh Pokhriyal (Education).
Of the 43 ministers, 36 are fresh faces, while seven existing ministers were promoted.
The survey, published Wednesday, further noted that about 53 per cent citizens believe that a “robust system to set clear objectives and measure performance against them (ministers)” will increase the quality of governance by the Government of India.
Meanwhile, 12 per cent respondents stated that “lateral hires from the private sector and/or academia” will enable the government to improve and 19 per cent voted for “more decentralisation of decision making”. Five per cent said they did not believe governance can be improved.
The LocalCircles survey gathered responses from 9,618 people across 309 districts of India. Of them, 68 per cent of respondents were men while 32 per cent of respondents were women. Forty-three per cent respondents were from tier 1, 29 per cent from tier 2 and 28 per cent respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.
49% Indians rate govt performance ‘below expectations’
LocalCircles has also been conducting an annual citizens survey to gauge the performance of the Modi government for the past seven years. The study conducted for the seventh year, in 2021, indicated that 49 per cent citizens rated the government’s performance “below expectations”, marking an all-time low. It was rated 38 per cent in 2020 and 25 per cent in 2019.
Released on 29 May, the seven-year survey revealed that the Modi government, which appeared to be in a strong position till late February, is being perceived as “faltering”.
The survey noted a 24 per cent drop in rating in two years, with only 51 per cent, of the over 70,000 citizens surveyed, rating the second term of the Modi government as meeting or exceeding expectations.
The percentage stood at 75 per cent, according to a survey conducted before the May 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
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