India 'downgraded' from 'Free' to 'Partly Free' country by US-based organisation

India scored 51 out of 100 in a separate assessment of the extent of internet freedom

India has been downgraded from a “Free Country” to a “Partly Free Country” by the ‘Freedom House’, a non-profit organisation, which is based in the United States and annually assesses the extents of political freedom and human rights in the countries around the world.

India scored 67 out of 100 in the latest report, “Freedom in the World 2021”, published by the organisation – four points lesser than its performance last year. It secured 34 marks out of 40 in terms of “political rights” and 33 out of 60 in “civil liberties”.

The country scored 51 out of 100 in a separate assessment of the extent of internet freedom.

“India’s status declined from Free to Partly Free due to a multiyear pattern in which the Hindu nationalist government and its allies have presided over rising violence and discriminatory policies affecting the Muslim population and pursued a crackdown on expressions of dissent by the media, academics, civil society groups, and protesters,” the Freedom House stated in its latest report.

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The Freedom House was formally established in New York in 1941 to promote the involvement of the US in World War II and the fight against fascism. It calls itself the “oldest” US organisation devoted to the support and defence of democracy around the world.

The organisation has been regularly publishing its annual report since 1973, employing the methods of social science analysis to assess the level of freedom in each country in the world, with a numerical score and ranking as ‘Free’, ‘Partly Free’, or ‘Not Free’.

It noted in its latest report that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its state-level allies continued to crack down on critics during the year (2020) and their response to the Covid-19 “included a ham-fisted lockdown that resulted in the dangerous and unplanned displacement of millions of internal migrant workers”.

“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,” the organisation alleged, adding: “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.”

The latest report by the Freedom House downgraded not only India, but also 72 other nations.

It, however, noted that India’s decline to “Partly Free” status meant that less than 20% of the world’s population were presently living in a ‘Free’ country, the smallest proportion since 1995.

"The enemies of freedom have pushed the false narrative that democracy is in decline because it is incapable of addressing people’s needs. In fact, democracy is in decline because its most prominent exemplars are not doing enough to protect it,” it argued.