*India has been downgraded from ‘Free’ to Partially Free’ in the annualreport published by Freedom House, a Washington-based pro-democracy thinktank and human rights watchdog.*
Published this week, the latest report marks the 4th consecutive year ofdemocratic backsliding under the Modi government, highlighting that thecountry appears to be inching closer to authoritarianism.
“Rather than serving as a champion of democratic practice and acounterweight to authoritarian influence from countries such as China, Modiand his party are tragically driving India itself toward authoritarianism,”the democracy research institute stated in its annual assessment.
The report stated that political rights and civil liberties have eroded inIndia since Modi became prime minister in 2014, and have furtheraccelerated after the Indian prime minister’s re-election in 2019.
The US government funded NGO which has been a vigorous proponent ofdemocratic values for almost eight decades, assigned an overall score of 67to India in its annual Freedom in the World report. The decline from lastyear’s status, the democracy advocacy group noted, was driven by severalfactors, including legislation and policies that undermine the politicalrights of Muslims, increased government pressure on human rightsorganizations, and rising intimidation of academics and journalists in thecountry.
“I’m not surprised at all. Since Modi’s election India has become a moreregulated society. One way of judging it is how dissenters and journalistsare being treated. In the last couple of years India has become a verydangerous place for journalists, particularly those who criticize Modi orhis Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),” said Dr. TalatWizarat, a noted scholar of International Relations.
“The erosion of rights happened gradually, but the free fall probablybecame difficult to control after Modi’s re-election in 2019,” said theformer chairperson of Department of International Relations at Universityof Karachi.
According to the Washington-based research institute, India has witnessed a9-point decline since 2005. This year’s report also raises severalquestions about the Indian judiciary’s role. Citing the recent acquittal ofBJP leaders who were credibly accused of orchestrating the demolition ofthe Babri Mosque in 1992, the report said judicial independence had alsocome under strain since Modi’s re-election.
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Quoting another case from last year, the authors mentioned that a judge wastransferred to a less desirable position after he issued rulings thatcriticized Delhi police for their failure to address communal violence andrelated hate speech by BJP politicians.
Referring to the Indian government’s actions against members of theTablighi Jamaat, the advocacy group said Muslims were scapegoated by theBJP government as potential spreaders of the coronavirus and subsequentlyexposed to attacks by vigilante mobs.
Freedom House also highlighted laws against religious conversionsimplemented in BJP-ruled states. “Under Modi, India appears to be elevatingnarrow Hindu nationalist interests at the expense of its founding values ofinclusion and equal rights for all,” the report said.
An increasing number of Hindutsva activists claim that Hindu women arebeing forcibly converted by Muslim men through marriage. The theory hasbeen labeled as ‘love jhad’. Such conspiracies, the report explained, arebeing used to enact laws that prevent interfaith marriages in India.
In its annual report, Freedom House assigns a grade to each country on 25different indicators that measure the health of a given country’sdemocracy. The overall score allows the Washington-based pro-democracywatchdog to rank countries as “Free”, “Partly Free” or “Not Free”.
