India downgraded from free to partly free in democracy index
Only 20% population in the world lives in free democracies
The
democracy research institute, Freedom House on Wednesday downgraded India from
free to partly free, voicing fear that the world’s largest democracy was
descending into authoritarianism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Freedom
House pointed to mob violence against Muslims, intimidation of journalists and
rising judicial interference since Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata
Party won power in 2014.
“Rather than
serving as a champion of democratic practice and a counterweight to
authoritarian influence from countries such as China, Modi and his party are
tragically driving India itself toward authoritarianism,” Freedom House said in
its annual report.
“Under Modi,
India appears to have abandoned its potential to serve as a global democratic
leader, elevating narrow Hindu nationalist interests at the expense of its
founding values of inclusion and equal rights for all.”
Freedom
House also pointed to the “ham-fisted” Covid-19 lockdown ordered by Modi in
which massive numbers of workers who lacked resources were obliged to walk
across the country to their villages.
“The ruling
Hindu nationalist movement also encouraged the scapegoating of Muslims, who
were disproportionately blamed for the spread of the virus and faced attacks by
vigilante mobs,” it said.
Freedom
House also voiced alarm at deteriorations in Hong Kong, where Beijing imposed a
draconian new security law; Belarus, where strongman Alexander Lukashenko has
held onto power despite protests following elections widely seen as unfair, and
Ethiopia, where Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a
military campaign in which rights groups have reported major abuses.
The United
States remained classified as free following Donald Trump’s turbulent
presidency but Freedom House warned of the “parlous state of US democracy.” It
pointed to Trump’s false allegations of election fraud and the January 6 storming of
the Capitol “incited by the president himself.”
Freedom
House also highlighted the Trump administration’s dismissal of inspector generals
tasked with looking out for government misconduct as well as “disproportionate
violence by police” against anti-racism protesters last year.
“The United States will need to work
vigorously to strengthen its institutional safeguards, restore its civic norms
and uphold the promise of its core principles for all segments of society if it
is to protect its venerable democracy and regain global credibility,” it said.
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