V-Dem Institute, an independent research institute based at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, has downgraded India from ‘the world’s largest democracy to electoral autocracy.’
Titled “Autocratisation Goes Viral”, V-Dem Institute’s fifth annual democracy report states “muzzling” of the media and “overuse” of defamation and sedition laws by the BJP government as the main reasons behind the downgrade in India’s position.
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According to the report, India’s score was at an all-time high at 0.57 in 2013 which has decreased to 0.34 at the end of 2020. BJP’s ascent to power in 2014 and its Hindu nationalist agenda are responsible for most of India’s decline, the report adds.
As far as censorship on media is concerned, V-Dem Institute has declared India to be worse than its neighbors Nepal and Bangladesh.
Modi-led government has employed sedition, defamation, and counterterrorism laws to silence its critics. Since 2014, the Modi government has indicted and incarcerated over 7,000 people, most of them being the critics of the incumbent government, with sedition charges.
Besides, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) has placed unnecessary restrictions on civil society and academia, the report states.
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Modi-led government has used UAPA to harass, intimidate, and imprison members of civil society and academia who protested against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
While dissenting voices in civil society and academia have been stifled, harassed, intimidated, and imprisoned, organizations aligned with the “Hindutva movement” have gained freedom under the Modi government, the report concludes.
