Omicron Snap Poll: Indians blame careless fellow citizens for COVID-19 surge

A bigger number of Indians blame careless fellow citizens for Covid mismanagement than the State Governments or the Central Government, as per IANS-CVoter Omicron Snap Poll.

The snap poll had a sample size of 1,942. Every third Indian, or about 35.7 per cent of the respondents blamed careless Indians for the devastation of the second wave.

This is in confirmation with responses to similar and related questions asked during the latest tracker survey. For example, a shockingly high 75 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that Indians were not regularly wearing masks and taking other sensible precautions.

In response to another question if Indians were repeating the same mistakes they made before the second wave, more than 75 per cent of the respondents agreed that the same mistakes were being made.

Just after the second wave started waning, the IANS-CVoter tracker discovered that Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached the nadir of his popularity ratings at 36 per cent ever since he took office in May, 2014. The primary reason seemed to be the handling of the second wave.

But a recent tracker seems to suggest that most Indians do not share the same views anymore. When asked about who was more responsible for the devastation of the second wave, just about 21 per cent of the respondents blamed the Central government. In the immediate aftermath of the second wave, more than 40 per cent Indians had said that they were angry with the Modi regime.

In the latest survey conducted on January 5, 2022, 20 per cent of the respondents blame the state governments for the poor handling of the second wave. Being the most visible and popular leader, Narendra Modi was the natural emotional and psychological target for Indians who have displayed remarkably consistent faith in him for more than seven years.