WASHINGTON: Most Indians approve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dealings with the United States, but not with Pakistan, says a US survey released this week.

The survey, conducted by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre, shows that only one in five Indians support Mr Modi’s dealings with Pakistan, but more than half back his dealings with the United States.

The survey also shows that less than half of Indian adults approve of Mr Modi’s conduct of relations with Russia and only a third rate the prime minister’s management of relations with China positively.

Asked if they support Mr Modi’s dealings with Pakistan, only 21 per cent respondents said they did while 42pc said they did not. Only 9pc disapproved Mr Modi’s relations with the US while 55pc approved them.

Similarly, only 14pc said they did not like his dealings with Russia while 56pc said they did. Thirty per cent approved his ties with China, but 33pc did not.

The surveyors said none of these assessments had changed markedly in the past year.

But nearly four in 10 respondents expressed no opinion on Mr Modi’s handling of relations with each of these three countries.

The majority (55pc) approved of Mr Modi’s handling of relations with the United States and 36pc held no opinion on the matter.

These are among the main findings of a Pew Research Centre survey conducted among 2,464 respondents in India from Feb 21 to March 10, 2017.

The survey shows that Indians’ approval of Prime Minister Modi and their satisfaction with both their country’s direction and the state of its economy have grown in recent years.

“Three years into Modi’s five-year tenure, the honeymoon period for his administration may be over but the public’s love affair with current conditions in India is even more intense,” said a statement issued by the surveyors.

Since 2015, Mr Modi’s popularity is relatively unchanged in the north, has risen in the west and the south, and is down slightly in the east.

“Mr Modi remains by far the most popular national figure in Indian politics tested in the survey,” the statement added.

His favourable rating is 31 percentage points higher than that of Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the Congress party, and is 30 points more than that for Rahul Gandhi, who led the Congress ticket in the last Lok Sabha election.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2017