London, June 24, 2023 (PPI-OT):Narendra Modi-led Indian government has been secretly working to keep India’s reputation as the “world’s largest democracy” alive after it was declared as “flawed democracy” by researchers three years ago, says a media report. The report by UK-based newspaper The Guardian said, the Indian government has been secretly working to keep its reputation as the “world’s largest democracy” alive after being called out by researchers for serious democratic backsliding under the nationalist rule of Narendra Modi.

Global Democracy Index, prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit, has for the past three years downgraded India to a “flawed democracy”. The report said the minutes from meetings of government ministries show that despite publicly dismissing several global rankings that suggest the country is on a dangerous downward trajectory, the officials have been quietly assigned to monitor India’s performance. It said according to the minutes, senior Indian officials have held at least four meetings in the last three years to discuss why the global Democracy Index downgraded India.

News of the meetings comes at a time when Narendra Modi is on a state visit to the US to hold talks with President Joe Biden. Other rankings have also raised concerns. In 2021, the US-based not-for-profit Freedom House downgraded India’s status from a free democracy to a “partially free democracy”. Meanwhile, the V-Dem Institute, based in Sweden, classifies India as an “electoral autocracy”.

The report said, the Indian foreign affairs minister, S Jaishankar, dismissed these rankings, arguing that Delhi did not “need sermons”. However, it maintained that behind closed doors, the response has been less self-assured and more panicked. In one meeting to assess the rankings, a senior official said, the prime minister was giving more importance to the Democracy Index and was keen to get improved rankings. This, the bureaucrat added, gave utmost importance to the Democracy Index as it affected the reputation of India. The report said, in February this year, concerns have been raised that these rankings should not be ignored as mere opinions because they could affect international business in India if the country is seen as a politically risky place to invest. The report quoting the official leading the meeting said that the Democracy Index focused on the revocation of special status of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, anti-Muslim riots in 2020, and a law that grants citizenship to non-Muslim migrants.

Notable, since 2015, the Economic Intelligence Unit has noted that India has experienced a deterioration in democratic norms. In its 2020 report, where it first downgraded the country to “flawed democracy” status, the organisation wrote: “In India, democratic norms have been under pressure since 2015. India’s score fell from a peak of 7.92 in 2014 to 6.61 in 2020 and its global ranking slipped from 27th to 53rd as a result of democratic backsliding under the leadership of Narendra Modi …The increasing influence of religion under the Modi premiership, whose policies have fomented anti-Muslim feeling and religious strife, has damaged the political fabric of the country.” The report pointed out that later that year, Indian government officials discreetly approached the London-based body to use “official” government-approved data on its Democracy Index rankings rather than their own independent data – an offer that was declined, according to Indian government documents.

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