New Delhi: The fifth annual democracy report by Sweden’s V-Dem Institute, titled ‘Autocratisation goes viral’, has downgraded India from “the world’s largest democracy” to an “electoral autocracy”, citing “muzzling” of the media, and overuse of defamation and sedition laws.
V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) claims to produce the largest dataset on democracy with almost 30 million data points for 202 countries from 1789 to 2020.
This report comes within a week of US watchdog Freedom House downgrading India’s status to “partly free” in its ‘Freedom in the World’ report.
While India’s score was at an all-time high at 0.57 (on a scale of 0-1) in 2013, it had declined to 0.34 by the end of 2020 — a loss of 23 percentage points in seven years. “Most of the decline occurred following BJP’s victory in 2014 and their Hindu nationalist agenda,” says the report.
“India is, in this aspect (censorship) now as autocratic as is Pakistan, and worse than both its neighbors Bangladesh and Nepal. In general, the Modi-led government in India has used laws on sedition, defamation, and counterterrorism to silence critics. For example, over 7,000 people have been charged with sedition after the BJP assumed power and most of the accused are critics of the ruling party,” says the report.
It adds that the use of defamation “frequently used to silence journalists” and the use of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) have placed constraints on civil society and gone against the Constitution’s commitment to secularism.
“Amended in August 2019 (it) is being used to harass, intimidate, and imprison political opponents, as well as people mobilizing to protest government policies. The UAPA has been used also to silence dissent in academia. Universities and authorities have also punished students and activists in universities engaging in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).”
The report notes that civil society is being increasingly muzzled while organisations aligned with the “Hindutva movement” have gained freedom. “The BJP have increasingly used the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) to restrict the entry, exit and functioning of Civil Society Organisations (CSO),” it says.
Also Read: Why India has slipped to ‘partly free’ category on freedom index & how countries are scored
Democracy on the decline
The fifth annual report by the organisation summarises the state of democracies of the world against the backdrop of developments that have taken place over the past decade.
The report finds that liberal democracies have diminished over the past decade from 41 countries to 32 countries.
“The global decline during the past 10 years is steep and continues in 2020, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. The level of democracy enjoyed by the average global citizen in 2020 is down to levels last found around 1990,” says the report.
It adds that what it calls “electoral autocracies” remain the most popular regime type, and along with closed autocracies, number 87 states, home to 68 per cent of the world’s population.
It also notes an accelerating wave of autocratisation engulfing 25 nations, home to one-third of the world’s population — that is 2.6 billion people. “Several G20 nations such as Brazil, India, Turkey, and the United States of America are part of this drift,” says the report.
It also notes that the number of democratising countries has dropped by almost half to 16, hosting a mere 4 per cent of the global population.
Also Read: ‘Misleading, incorrect’ — govt issues point-by-point rebuttal to ‘partly free’ tag for India
Who cares about what Sweden things of us?? You guys need to take a chill pill. Even a Swedish would laugh this article off.
This is very immature article beleivb outsiders than insiders only for the sake of political self satisfaction.and there is no doubt theprint supports such things recklessly.
Do you go under two names? Your other name- Pouu Gkhhhjh. That’s great. Do you have two Aadhar cards too?
Sweden ka v-dem.. some institutes giving certificate to large country like ours is laughable.. and I’m sure they have not accounted our biased media which without hesitation reports fake news!!
That is truely said. No. of crimes have increased exponentially. Nobody is allowed to talk against injustice.
..they are also partly correct,the unwanteod critics shud be silenced for the sake of betterment..these critics are pseudo seculars and leftists who don’t want ..what the.majoriyu of Indians want. As to every instant possiblrp ndtv has degraded Hindus…they shud be ashamed….to degrade the very soul of indkian soil.wherw they stand.and it’s every government s duty to silepnceu. The unwanted critics..
But .all.said and done.modi govt shud hveo done to reduce corruptions ..be fine air in tyaxi g the fueol.prives and explain it to people…as that touches the people and that make them.understand.though its impossible to satisfy all…,it
Shud be fair enough..tralnsjparent enough ..I feel.
You are able to write like this and be alive because this is India.
Utter rubbish report, its methodology is flawed as evident when leftist Nepal which denies rights to majority maghdeshi and Bangladesh and Pakistan which have been under military rule and are officially Islamic nations with dwindling nonmuslim populations are rated higher than India. Report gives clean chit to anglowestern world, i.e. US, Canada, Australia, NZ, and western europe, basically eveyrone who is a stooge of USA under its NATO is given a clean chit desppite the rise of autocratic Trump and others in respective nations,. This organisaiton is promoting organisation destablizing and foreign fundign christinaising India. Who needs these reports. India needs to graduate to next stage and get its universities based think tanks to produce similar global reports with more data points which can be easily crunched by computers in seconds, where mathodology is suited to Indian agenda and hindu agenda insted of western, christian, leftist, petro funded islamic agenda. This is western hristian leftist gazwa e hind, and petro funded islamic gazwa e hind. India is doign well to shut these out. en ko mirchi lagi tohmei kya kru.
Even the article can not be trusted as the owner of this NEWS The Print is owned by non-other than Shekhar Gupta. Who was prime accused in Augusta West Land Deal. The main Purpose is the fill own pocket not in the National Interest. No doubt the same can be seen in the tone of this article
If the quality of opposition parties are so pathetic in the kind of politics they indulge in why not the current government.
Major areas are covered and the benefits reach the public without any prejudices.
Could any of the media have any details of discrimination in the benefits not going to minorities or selective help to a group.
Undoubtedly, instead of the word centre, it should be called as autocratic dictatorship govt. Truly, through IT, CBI misusing power to suppress the critics. All are afraid now to comment even, REMEMBERING HITLER, PROBABLY WORSE THAN HIT LIER….
Comment by bhaktas! Oh dumbs, it’s an institution evaluating 202 countries and our country is one of them. So to say it’s all against us only is toooo stupid. Anyway do we need any report from outsider to know what’s happening in this country? The way sane voices are being crushed and insanity is prevailing all around makes ot clear where we are heading!
Don’t be shameless he is comparing India with Pakistan. Swedes are fumed because not bought any weapons from these things to happen when you grow keep it up India make in India,skill India.
The fact that you write these kinds of nonsensical posts on daily bases and no one holds you accountable is more than enough proof that India is a democracy . And india doesn’t need validation from Sweden
Report this shit channel too
Sweeden and every country is worried and Rahul is all the more worried, because India is again moving towards lost glory of Hinduism, this leads to less conversions. Kangress will be lost for ever, under great leadership of Rahul Ji and under the great supervision of Soniya Ji. Long life to both of them.
Really a worrying factor. Jai Shriram…
Instead of commenting on V-Dem report, we as Indian must look into our own backyard. We can not become so called Vishwa Guru or World Leader with I, Me & Myself attitude prevailing at present. We are so self obsessed that we reject good comment and advise also. India & Indians can not achieve anything by alienating ourselves from rest of world.
GOD BLESS INDIA & INDIANS
Any negative press is biased. It is more worrisome the bias has become routine foe India. What has changed in India for the last 7 years? It is Modi and that speaks volume.
Sweden wants to sell gripin fighter jets to India but india refuse to buy that’s why they are doing such kind of misleading reports .
Sweden wants to sell gripin fighter jets to India but india refuse to buy that’s why they are doing such kind of misleading reports . Also India is the fastest growing nation . Its common for such countries which are trying to defame India’s democracy.
This article is utter nonsense.
As the journalist Shekhar had said that the Congress should float so much of lies if has to come back to power and it should totally confuse the people. This is exactly what is doing. The Congress is not able to come to terms with the ever growing popularity of Mr.Modi. its a dangerous plan they are working to with a lot of other people international and national also in their support. But we Indians are seeing a lot of things which are good happening for the country, be it the Kashmir problem or the other numerous problems India has been facing for the last 70 yrs. We all are thankful to the PM for this. Congress can never be trusted again.
Why are you doing propaganda against India? You will never succeed.
So, according to these Swedish crooks, Lincoln is a genocidal maniac because he chose to fight a brutal civil war instead of letting the South secede peacefully. Let them either say that openly or shove their report where the sun does not shine.
Do they have the diversity India has in terms of religion, language, demography? Let’s see their level of democracy once they have a population as diverse as India.. They would be at bottom of list then.. I am sure they wouldn’t even be able to form a proper Government DEMOCRATICALLY if they had such diversity… you cant just use some data points and compare all nations with same scale. There are so many challenges etc that differ from country to country.. These FreedomHouse and VDem have no other job to do, hence they are doing these non-sense comparisons and fooling everyone.. Well, let us focus on India’s development and let these good for nothing people carry on their own evaluation s ?
We indian should not care about this non sense particularly saying that democracy in india is worse than Pakistan. I believe who ever wrote it is not in his right space of mind.
Already several YouTube channels like TV9 Telugu , Satyahindi & Newsclickin have begun restricting user comments on their videos even if they are nonabusive. It is strange how abusive , anti Muslim & pro BJP commenters are posting hateful comments on almost every news channels comment section & are being published outright even after reporting/flagging such comments My 7 to 8 comments are not published however it can see them when I login under my YouTube data section. This is my experience in last 48 hrs.
You know what India needs…a similar’ research house’ that talks about racism and colorism and political corruption that exists in those countries..who are they to pass judgement. Contributing to it are India’s
‘ liberals’ who have just made it their mission in life to oppose the government on every issue.
If India runs such an institution, it will have have no credibility as it will end up with the familiar unprofessionalism and fake news. Goswami claimed he was setting up a channel to project India worldwide, so the world sees India through a perspective different from the BBC and CNN. But see how Republic turned out to be – it is the lowest end of the gutter press. Same with WION. Whatever Indians touch will be drowned by their communalism, casteism and corruption. We cannot match BBC or CNN, we need them to see the real situation of India.
I think the Agency should send their executives to a kindergarten school to learn about democracy.
Their survey seems to have full of jealous and foolishness.
Shameful
>India: Ruled by democratically elected gov’t with strong institutions.
>Myanmar: Army just did a coup & took the elected leader as prisoner.
>Pakistan: Islamic state ruled by army.
A White institute wants us to believe that all 3 come in same category haha
Mind your own business. We are a major power & a great country. Not like you.
So true and I hope people realise this thing soon so that we may not end up in a worse situation than the current.
very entertaining to see the triggering of modibots that can’t even spell democracy
Yes, I agree nowadays our voice has been suppressed by BJP. They have devasted the current environment of India. No worry very soon they will be thrown out of power.
These propaganda is circulated by christian missionaries as govt taking tough actions against the biased NGO’S. As conversation of Hindus to Christian is checked-in
Sweden is a country which is 99% white, 99% Swedish and almost entirely non-religious. They have 4-5 political parties and all left or center-left parties.
They have lower voting percentages than Kashmir and lower political activities than what we see even in our municipal elections!
But WE must learn from them about democracy?? They are irrelevant and hardly a democracy to begin with!
All the bhakts will be raging…who is Sweden to discuss our internal matter ? Oh, that Greta country – FDI, Foreign Dangerous Ideology according to Modi ! They must be jealous of India’s power.
Unless you count steps in the Vedic direction as achievements, India under Modi has failed comprehensively on the two key fronts – the economy and democracy/civil rights.
Many Indians were willing to trade civil rights and attacks on minorities, hoping Modi will compensate with development. Then India could be like China – be brutally repressive and nationalist, but be successful economically, and tell the world to ignore the first part.
But for India, it did not and cannot work out that way. India cannot be China. India has a failing economy, and is a dictatorship in the making. The failing economy will drive the way to dictatorship. It does not have a forward looking ideology like the communists have, it has a communal and casteist ideology set in Vedic times.
Hence, for now, we are ranked with Pakistan, and then we can slide further to be like Myanmar and finally end like Yugoslavia.
The Swedish institute also notes that democracy has receded in the US, Eastern Europe where it recently appeared, Latin America. Many had never achieved even rudimentary democracy.
India can ignore world opinion – but accept it cannot expect the respect shown to a law-and-order democracy, nor expect investments in a lawless country. You have to be like Myanamar, Sri Lanka, Pak and other low grade countries that give importance to ethno or religious nationalism.
Thanks bhakths for your achievements !
When a dime a dozen, irrelevant , immanncled by profligacy, invisible until indigated, inscient and imprecise self – acknowledged, insidious cliques ventilate imprecatory indabas , instead of imbibing Islamophobic inanities and initiating introspections , implicative is the inhered inveteracy , irremediable the inequations of infamy.
Sweden … Fuck you
No matter how defensive you become, you cannot change the truth, and also, you cannot hide the fact. The irony is that all the people who are pushing back and denying the state of affairs today using all sorts of excuses know the truth but lack the moral courage and honesty to accept it. Trust me; white people are not ought to get India. The same White people considered India the best non-western democracy until 2014. And don’t forget that at the end of the day, no one else but you will be the loser.
Exactly. Indeed, you have spotted the irony of people who do not believe in democratic values – who believe in persecution of minorities, who respond with mob violence, who garland rapists, kill journalists, thrash students, and assault women – become the most enraged that India is ranked as an autocratic country heading for company with Pakistan. They think there is a western plot to stop India becoming the shining vishwa guru. It is like a child who gets bad marks from all teachers but is convinced it is because the teachers are all bad, and he is not responsible and has no obligation to improve; and you have angry parents who come and say the same thing on behalf of the child.
And you are spot on about lacking the moral courage and honesty to accept it. They know Modi is a failure, but having made him the Great Hindu Hope, they have nowhere to go. It is like Trump who was the Great White Hope of his supporters, who in their enthusiasm assaulted the Capitol. Or like Hitler was the Great Aryan Hope of the Germans; his supporters at the end of the war could not accept they were wrong, but the reality was Hitler had Germany reduced to rubble. Like that Modi, will have the economy destroyed and India disintegrated, but his supporters will continue believing he is right.
That’s what you get when you don’t buy the Gripes and buy the Rafale instead. Have read so many reports from Sweden denigrating India and the Rafale ever since they lost the deal- don’t take my word, but do an Internet search yourself.
Few people can’t digest criticism……
However, thanks Modi hi for taking us equal to Pakistan what previous govt was not able to do in past….
Till then few people were shouting that Modi have regained India in world stage and bla bla….now they again shouting on these reports calling it purported.
They can’t digest criticism……
However, thanks Modi hi for taking us equal to Pakistan what previous govt was not able to do in past….
As a non-Indian I find it hilarious whenever a report comes out criticizing India, the comments are filled with Indians saying ‘what nonsense, India is better than (insert name of astronomically more pleasant, civilized, and democratic country here).
Enjoy you new fascist overlords, you reap what you sow!
Well ….as i read through the article my civil self got the overwhelming need to present my views contrary to the esteemed vdem institute and their 202 point survey along with the detached from society lot of indian journalists but as i scroll down to my surprise comment section filled with reality not some distorted white supremacist idea of democracy and freedom. That too in a left leaning platform. I am happy and lets see the moderators of the platform lamenting about freedom of expression will allow this post. (Censorship)
First i read the headline then i saw The Print BY shekhar Gupta – its obvious!
Anyways India needs discipline and discipline may only come with tough leader.
Good i am happy.
Instead of throwing false accusations on think tanks like Freedom House and Sweden’s V-Dem institute about their lack of knowledge on India Indian government should consider these evaluations and work on the mistakes it made. India has to take these reports in a positive attitude and make sure that India performs much better in the next report. Because a plethora of justifications can be provided but the world will only look on these reports and therefore we must put our hands together in this task of revival of democracy in India. Only then the world will recognise India as a glorious democratic country and not as an autocracy.
West does not need to lecture……Firstly,they created India Pakistan or to be more clear hindu muslim bias…now they talk about our elected govt?how funny!!!and shame on some of our so called
Liberal countrymen….you lick the spit of westerners….Modi govt is a elected govt…I am proud of country…my PM.
No one takes Sweden and its so called institutions seriously…even within Sweden…it is time stop looking to these western Institutions…i have seen them closely, know their mindsets and their interests…they themselves break all forms of democracy in the name of freedom. From discrimination to climate change , they have double standards .
Absurdity at its highest.
We should not be concerned about the factual incortect biased report.Foreign funded anti national NGO and missionery activities are curtailed.They don’t know the difference between Dharma and religions,so can not understand Hinduism.They see Hinduism through lense of Abrahmic religions and hence their reports rightful place is in the dustbins.
This nonsense would stop only when Congress is reduced to zero in Indian Parliament.
Hopefully this won’t send the MEA and Jaishankar into overdrive trying to defend India’s honour from tweets, reports etc from non- entities and busybodies. Best ignored. As the saying goes ‘ Dogs bark as the elephant marches’.