NRIs in US support PM Modi's re-election, give thumbs up to MEA's performance: survey

Non-Resident Indians living in the US overwhelmingly supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi's re-election in the recently-concluded general elections and gave a near-perfect score to the Ministry of External Affairs for addressing their issues, according to a survey.

The survey, carried out by the US-based public and international policy platform Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS), states that as many a 93.9 per cent of the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) living in the US supported the re-election of Modi as prime minister.

In the opinion poll held early this month, the questions were mostly based on the Modi-led government's performance on various programmes, aspects and issues.

The survey found that NRIs voted highest (95.5 per cent) on the performance of the Ministry of External Affairs in handling their issues.

As many as 92 per cent of the NRIs feel that India is better respected now than before 2014. Over 93 per cent believe that the Modi government has done better in countless infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, river transportation and electrification, it said.

During the last five years, the NDA government has taken several steps to address the issues of the NRI community including visa and passport issues.

The time taken in issuing visas and passports by Indian consulates have come down drastically over the last five years.

According to the survey, more than 80 per cent NRIs feel the government's schemes have been better for India.

Among the schemes, Clean India got the maximum support (86.9 per cent), followed by Make In India (84.6 per cent), Digital India (84.3 per cent) and 71 per cent of NRIs found Startup India doing better, it said.

The survey also found that 90.3 per cent of NRIs illustrated how India was more secure under the Modi government.

The 92 per cent polled NRIs expressed support towards the government on its handling of terrorism and 82.5 per cent of NRIs observed lesser religious riots and issues under the Modi government, it said.

According to the survey, only 63.3 per cent NRIs felt that Ram Janmabhoomi and Sabarimala issues were important for the 2019 election.

Over 81 per cent of the NRIs said that GST and demonetisation moves were better for India in the long term and 90.3 per cent expressed that India was on the path towards growth, the survey said.

More than 97 per cent expressed that the government had been free of scams, FIIDS said releasing the results of the survey.

In the first back-to-back majority for a single party in over three decades, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 303 out of the total 542 Lok Sabha seats, handing out a crushing defeat to the Congress Party and many other political opponents. The election resuts were declared on May 23.