V-Dem denigrates India once again, ranks it 108th on Democracy Index

New Delhi: Deeply shocking though it maybe, India has now been ranked at the 108^th spot globally for electoral democracy, way below countries such as Tanzania, Bolivia, Mexico, Singapore and even Nigeria, which comes in at a modest 91^st slot by V-Dem Institute in its Democracy Report for 2023 released on Thursday.

Once again, India’s ranking apart from being abysmally low on the Liberal Democracy Index (LDI), has even achieved the dubious distinction of dipping from the 100^th position in 2022 to 108th this year. The only other aspect which may make democratic and patriotic Indians feel better (albeit temporarily), is that neighbouring Pakistan has been ranked barely two steps lower at 110 despite being in the thick of a tumultuous economic crisis.

The George Soros funded V-Dem Institute in its latest report has claimed that the level of democracy enjoyed by the average global citizen in 2022 dipped to 1986 levels, a claim many would find difficult to believe given that there have been several dramatic geo-political changes all over the world in the 35 years following the mid-1980s.

The report called ‘Defiance in the Face of Autocratization’ goes on to say that the current wave of autocratization spans almost all regions of the world, but specifically in the Asia-Pacific, the level of democracy has taken a beating and nearly 3.5 billion people in these regions now reside in what it calls “electoral autocracies”. Needless to say, it cites India high among them.

“Closed autocracies with sizeable populations include China, Iran, Myanmar, and Vietnam. This regime type accounts for 28% of the world’s population, or 2.2 billion people. In the most populous region, Asia and the Pacific, almost nine out of ten individuals – or 89% – reside in autocracies and are denied some or all democratic rights and freedoms. This includes closed autocracies such as China and electoral autocracies like India. Only 11% live in liberal democracies like Japan and South Korea, or electoral democracies such as Indonesia, Mongolia and Nepal,” the report states.

Continuing with its anti-India rhetoric, the report has slammed one of the world’s largest democracies for descending into an electoral autocracy by curbing freedom of expression, indulging in government censorship of the media, and repression of civil society organisations. V-Dem claims that autocratization often occurs due to democratic weakening and cites countries like El Salvador and Hungary to justify India’s low ranking as a democracy in its report.

Emphasising that the global balance of economic power is shifting, the report highlights that elected autocracies, among which it counts India, are rapidly becoming more powerful economically, and their numbers are growing. On the flip side, democracies are gradually declining in their share of global economic wealth. If these trends continue, it says, autocracies will surpass democracies in economic power over the next few decades.

In India’s case, it cites the ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm responsible for curbs on religious freedom and diminishing democratic rights, but it does not take into account that people in India enjoy a significant amount of freedom and fundamental rights as compared to neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan and even China which is state-run and autocratic in the truest sense of the term.

Despite ranking India near the bottom on the LDI, the report has had to acknowledge the country’s economic growth trajectory and its significant contribution to the global supply chain. “The ongoing ‘third wave’ of autocratization is accelerating this trend in so far as countries turn from democracies to autocracies. India, that descended into electoral autocracy in recent years, has more than doubled its share of the global economy since 1992. It now accounts for 7.2% of global GDP, which corresponds to one-third of the share of GDP generated by all electoral autocracies,” V-Dem points out in its report.

V-Dem stands for Varieties of Democracy, and the Institution was created in 2014 by Professor Staffan I. Lindberg as an independent research organization. Among its tall claims, it promises to be a new way of thinking and assessing democracy. It provides a variety of studies that rate countries on a variety of topics.

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