New Delhi: The overwhelming support seen in initial weeks for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation drive is ebbing largely on the back of problems in its execution, a new poll conducted using a bunch of Network18 Twitter handles reveals.
The Network18 survey was conducted through the Twitter handles of News18, News18 India, Firstpost, Moneycontrol and CNBC. There were four questions in the poll, each posted out as an individual tweet and held for over 24 hours from December 14.
To the main question — “More than a month into demonetisation, has the exercise worked?” — 55% of the 4,680 respondents said ‘Yes’ while 45% said ‘No’.
To the question “What is your assessment on demonetisation?”, 39% of the respondents clicked on “Good idea, bad execution”, while 26% thought it was bad in idea and execution. Around 35% thought it was a good idea with good execution. Around 10,995 people voted for this question.
The weeks after the demonetisation announcement have been defined by long queues outside bank branches, repeated changes to rules on cash withdrawals and usage, all of which have created an impression that the government was unprepared and, therefore, improvising on the go.
To the question “Who is to blame for the demonetisation chaos?”, the blame was shared more or less equally by the banking system and the government. Out of 5,330 people who voted on this question, half blamed the banks, 43% said government, while only 6% held the RBI responsible.
Finally, to a question that asked those who were initially supportive of the demonetisation move if they were still supporting it, 62% answered yes, while 38% said no, providing some succour to the government but nevertheless indicating a shift in public opinion away from the overwhelming support seen in the early days. A total of 8,198 respondents voted on this question.
Two of the five Network18 properties that carried the poll — Moneycontrol and CNBC — draw their user base from those in the financial business and the financially inclined. As many as 52% and 46% of the respondents in the Moneycontrol and CNBC polls, respectively, say that the demonetisation move was a good idea, but badly executed. In the other properties, the same option polled between 26% and 42%.
Similarly, in response to the question that sought to pin-point those responsible for the demonetisation chaos, 10% and 13% of the respondents in the Moneycontrol and CNBC polls, respectively, blamed the Reserve Bank of India. The same option polled between 4% and 7% in the poll conducted by News18, Firstpost and News18 India.
A survey conducted by polling agency C-Voter on November 21 across 252 parliamentary seats with 1,212 respondents had around 66% saying demonetisation was good in both idea and implementation.
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