Aakar Patel | Civil liberties & democracy: Why is India's rank so low?
1 year, 8 months ago

Aakar Patel | Civil liberties & democracy: Why is India's rank so low?

Deccan Chronicle  

In 2014 Dr Manmohan Singh had said: “I sincerely believe it will be disastrous for the country to have Narendra Modi as India’s Prime Minister.” Four years later, he said he recognised his words had been harsh but he added that the “time is not far off when the public at large would have the chance to pronounce on the efficacy or otherwise of public policy which has been put in place by Modiji”. The Economist Intelligence Unit, based in London, downgraded India in its Democracy Index in 2020, classifying it as a “flawed democracy”. In its 2014 Freedom in the World report, India was classified as “free”, with a rating of 77. India was ranked 26th in 2015, fell to 34th in 2020 and to 50th in 2022, classified as a “defective democracy”.

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History of this topic

Aakar Patel | How India keeps falling in global indices: The issue is governance…
1 week ago

Aakar Patel | How India keeps falling in global indices: The issue is governance…

Deccan Chronicle  

In 2021, I wrote a book called Price of the Modi Years. Freedom House’s “Freedom in the World” index looks at the rule of law, political pluralism and elections, functioning of government, civil liberties, freedom of expression, association and organisation and individual rights. The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index rates nations on criminal and civil justice system, fundamental …

What can be done to arrest the trend of democratic decline worldwide? | In Focus podcast
3 months ago

What can be done to arrest the trend of democratic decline worldwide? | In Focus podcast

The Hindu  

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance is a Stockholm-based intergovernmental organisation that advocates for democracy worldwide. Titled, ‘The Global State of Democracy 2024: Strengthening the Legitimacy of Elections in a Time of Radical Uncertainty’, the report has found that while one in four countries have improved in democratic metrics, a greater proportion—four out of nine – have declined. …

Satire | Let’s make our own democracy index like North Korea
8 months, 2 weeks ago

Satire | Let’s make our own democracy index like North Korea

The Hindu  

It is a matter of great pride that for the first time in its history, Indian democracy is getting its own democracy index. As it happens, Indian democracy has the world’s lowest deaths per capita from gun violence.” “Brilliant.” This column is a satirical take on life and society. Look at Europe’s brutality towards migrants, and look at our CAA, …

India's Democracy Index: Alternative to Western Think Tanks or Political Move?
8 months, 3 weeks ago

India's Democracy Index: Alternative to Western Think Tanks or Political Move?

The Quint  

However, not everybody thinks that indices developed in the west are necessarily the best indicators to gauge the strength of India's democracy. Democratic standards need to be seen in a contextual way," AK Mohapatra, Professor of international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told The Quint. "Creating a homegrown index is a very good initiative because we also need to put …

Modi’s India plans its own democracy index, after global rankings downgrade
9 months ago

Modi’s India plans its own democracy index, after global rankings downgrade

Al Jazeera  

The index is being finalised ahead of elections, with the Modi government worried about global criticism hurting sovereign ratings. “The government of India monitors select global indices to drive reforms and growth in the country.” Yet emails and the minutes of meetings held between government agencies over the past three years, accessed and reviewed by Al Jazeera, point to a …

India ‘one of the worst autocratisers’: V-Dem report on democracy
9 months, 1 week ago

India ‘one of the worst autocratisers’: V-Dem report on democracy

The Hindu  

India, which was downgraded to the status of an “electoral autocracy” in 2018, has declined even further on multiple metrics to emerge as “one of the worst autocratizers”, according to the ‘Democracy Report 2024’ released by the Gothenburg-based V-Dem Institute that tracks democratic freedoms worldwide. The level of democracy enjoyed by the “average person in the world is down to …

India’s democratic values have eroded significantly: V­Dem
1 year, 9 months ago

India’s democratic values have eroded significantly: V­Dem

The Hindu  

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi delivered a lecture titled ‘Learning to Listen in the 21st Century’ at the University of Cambridge on February 28, 2023. Data from the V-Dem Institute at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg show that democratic values have eroded significantly in recent years in India. In 2022, a citizen is “likely” to be arrested for posting political content online …

Aakar Patel | Why is India’s rank on some global indices not improving?
1 year, 9 months ago

Aakar Patel | Why is India’s rank on some global indices not improving?

Deccan Chronicle  

India’s most reputable news agency, the Press Trust of India, reported last week that “India ranks 42 in 55 countries on International Intellectual Property Index”. Similarly, in The Economist’s Global Liveability Index, two Indian cities made it — Delhi, which fell from 110th to 118th place, and Mumbai, that went down from 115th to 124th. In the World Economic Forum’s …

Environment to religious freedom, how India has fared in prominent global indices in 2022
2 years, 6 months ago

Environment to religious freedom, how India has fared in prominent global indices in 2022

India Today  

The recent global reports on indicators ranging from religious freedom to the value of the passport have attracted both massive attention from the public and strong opposition from the Indian government. INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT 2022 For the second year in a row, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom has placed India on the list of “Countries of Particular …

The Downgrading of India’s Democracy
2 years, 8 months ago

The Downgrading of India’s Democracy

The Diplomat  

India’s democracy is in peril. Of 179 countries assessed in the 2022 report, India stands 93rd on the V-Dem’s Liberal Democracy Index and 100th in the Electoral Democracy Index. The U.S.-based Freedom House described India as a “partly free democracy” in its Freedom in the World 2022 report and gave it a”Global Freedom Score’” of 66 out of 100 – …

Aakar Patel | Venal officers target citizens, keeping India as ‘partly free’
2 years, 8 months ago

Aakar Patel | Venal officers target citizens, keeping India as ‘partly free’

Deccan Chronicle  

What is a democratic government? Even in the rankings of Freedom House, the American outfit which has declared that India is only “partly free”, on the count of electoral democracy, India scored 33 out of 40, which is pretty good. The Bhima Koregaon case was initially about the violence between the Marathas and dalits in the village of Bhima Koregaon, …

Aakar Patel | Modi's 15-point Vikas Yatra: How far has his govt really delivered?
3 years, 6 months ago

Aakar Patel | Modi's 15-point Vikas Yatra: How far has his govt really delivered?

Deccan Chronicle  

The National Democratic Alliance government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked its seventh anniversary at the end of last month. In the World Bank’s report, India has risen from 142 to 63 in “doing business”. It says: “The last seven years of the Modi government have focused on clearing the path of India’s youth as they navigate through opportunities …

Assessing the quality of Indian democracy
3 years, 6 months ago

Assessing the quality of Indian democracy

Hindustan Times  

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes his seventh year in office, India’s perceived democratic backsliding has invariably formed the underlying context of political assessments of his tenure. These concerns were validated by a host of annual democracy rankings earlier this year, which downgraded India’s status to a “flawed democracy” or “electoral autocracy”. Notwithstanding political rhetoric, these institutes follow a very …

Aakar Patel | India's image in free fall, but govt in denial on real causes
3 years, 9 months ago

Aakar Patel | India's image in free fall, but govt in denial on real causes

Deccan Chronicle  

In 2020, the Narendra Modi government decided to improve India’s standing on various indices that showed a deterioration in governance. A report the next month said the government was “working to improve India’s ranking on 29 global indices, and it wants the message to reach everyone loud and clear”. The way it would do this was “a massive publicity campaign” …

Aakar Patel | As democracy endangered, India's global reputation hit
3 years, 9 months ago

Aakar Patel | As democracy endangered, India's global reputation hit

Deccan Chronicle  

The Washington Post’s editorial board has written that India’s claim of being a democracy should be put in question. India’s brave soldiers like Akshay Kumar and Sachin Tendulkar did not respond to the Washington Post either, as they had done to Rihanna. The Economist, which is the world’s most respected magazine, has carried a headline in its latest issue which …

Aakar Patel | Democracy Index: Why India's rank now falling
3 years, 10 months ago

Aakar Patel | Democracy Index: Why India's rank now falling

Deccan Chronicle  

The Economist is a magazine though it refers to itself as a newspaper. This is mainly, the Economist Intelligence Unit says, because “democratic norms have been under pressure since 2015”, and as a result India’s “global ranking slipped from 27th to 53rd as a result of democratic backsliding under the leadership of Narendra Modi”. “However, there are significant weaknesses in …

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