India Trusts Political Parties the Least, Army the Most, Says Study

New Delhi: According to a 2018 study, the army enjoys the highest level of “effective trust”, followed by the Supreme Court (SC) and the high courts (HC). Strangely, political parties were at the bottom of that list.

The study by Azim Premji University (APU) and Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), which was conducted in 22 Assembly constituencies with 16,680 respondents, found out that the political parties scored an average “effective trust” of -1.75 per cent, while the government officials could only gain the trust of 4.8 per cent people.

Indian Army enjoys the highest level of “effective trust” with more than 77 per cent respondents putting their faith in them; the Supreme Court and the High Court rank claim the next two spots with 54.8 per cent and 48 per cent of average “effective trust” respectively.

The study defines the metric “effective trust” as the difference between the percentage of respondents who opted for a “great deal of trust” at one end of the scale and “no trust at all” at the other.

The elected offices and institutions— the President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Parliament, Vidhan Sabha (state legislature) and panchayat/municipal corporation (MC)—enjoy an “effective trust” of 40 per cent, the report finds.

Variations galore

Maharashtra showed high levels of trust, nearly 63 per cent, in the elected institutions—Parliament, Vidhan Sabha, panchayat or municipal corporation. On the contrary, respondents in Andhra Pradesh had the least faith, with Parliament and Vidhan Sabha garnering as low as -4% and -2% of “effective trust” respectively.

Political parties found themselves in a deplorable situation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where the trust deficit hit rock bottom at -24 per cent and -21 per cent respectively. In Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, too, the “effective trust” was negative at -9 per cent and -3 per cent. The anomaly, however, was Maharashtra in which 31 per cent respondents trust the political parties.

Declining confidence

In the eight states surveyed—Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Telangana—the average “effective trust” in Parliament stood at 36.6 per cent. In 2013, a similar study by CSDS showed that 56 per cent people trust Parliament; in 2005, the figure was 43 per cent.

Andhra Pradesh, the sceptic

The respondents in Andhra Pradesh were the unhappy lot. While they showed confidence in the Indian Army, they were sceptic about all the other metrics. The average “effective score” of the judiciary stood over 50 per cent, however, Andhra Pradesh restricted it to about half of it.

Andhra Pradesh doesn’t trust Prime Minister. While 48 per cent people of the remaining seven states have confidence in the PM, Andhra’s “effective score” stood at -4 per cent. Similarly, the state showed a trust deficit in the President with the same score.