When Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014, he promised an all-out war on corruption. “Na Khaoonga, Na Khane Doonga” was the slogan. However, 43% of the people polled believe corruption has increased under the Modi government, finds the latest India Today-CVoter Mood of the Nation survey. A big number of people also perceive inflation to be the biggest failure of the NDA government.
People cited unemployment as the biggest problem confronting the country today, according to the Mood of the Nation (MOTN) survey in August.
The Mood of the Nation is a bi-annual survey that’s been commissioned by the India Today Group for around two decades now. The August 2026 edition was conducted by CVoter with a sample of 25,184 people directly surveyed between July 1 and August 25. Another set of 91,795 interviews conducted over the last six months as part of CVoter’s regular tracking were also used to formulate the findings of the August Mood of the Nation 2026.
What was the NDA government’s top failure? Twenty-three percent of the people said it was unemployment, while 15.9% said it was price rise or inflation. Economic growth was cited as the top failure by 13.9% of the respondents. In January, 8.5% of people saw lack of growth as the top government failure.
Failure to curb corruption was seen as the biggest failure of the government by 9.8% of the respondents.
The issue of corruption saw the highest swing in the last six months. While 1.4% of the people had said in January that the government had failed to curb corruption, the number rose to 9.8% in the August survey.
The issue of corruption has made headlines in the last few months due to the paper leak cases and the protests related to them. The 45-day protest by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak led to the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as the Union Education Minister.
Forty-three percent of people believe corruption has increased under the NDA government, while 34.8% said it had reduced, according to the MOTN survey. Of those surveyed, 14.8% said corruption remained unchanged.
People believe that unemployment, price rise, farm distress, poverty, corruption, and safety of women were among the top issues confronting the country, found the MOTN survey.
Unemployment was seen as the biggest problem by 22.7% of the people, while inflation was flagged as the second-biggest problem. Price rise also saw the highest swing among people, from 12.8% in January to 18.1% in August, perceiving it to be the biggest issue facing India.
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