Press censorship and increasing disinformation on social media may have led to the widespread perception that India’s image has improved, the report said.
By Scroll Staff
Despite the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s claim that India’s international reputation has improved significantly under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a new study has found that global audiences view the country much less favourably than before he came to power in 2014.
Eighty nine percent of the people in the United States, the United Kingdom and France in a survey conducted by polling and advisory firm GlobeScan from March 29 to April 8 said that they think it is important for India to protect human rights and democracy if their countries are to strengthen ties with New Delhi.
Nearly 90% of those surveyed supported human rights as a prerequisite for their country’s industrial and other commercial investments in India.
Out of those surveyed in the three countries, 90% expressed concern at the Indian government’s alleged attempt to assassinate citizens of the United States and Canada on home soil. Further, three in every four respondents said that they are concerned about the new laws that would make it harder for Muslims to become citizens in India, referring to the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The Act is aimed to provide a fast track to citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities, except Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and have entered the country by December 31, 2014. The law was passed by Parliament in late 2019 but implemented in March.
The study titled “The Modi Mirage”, released on Tuesday, had been authored by academics from the Groningen University in The Netherlands, London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies in collaboration with not-for-profit Friends of Democracy.
The survey also found that just 10% of the respondents viewed Modi favourably in the United Kingdom and 22% in the US. The figure dropped to 9% among younger respondents in the United States.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.