India, for the second consecutive year, continues to not completely free country, according to the findings in the Freedom of the World report. This year, India has dropped a point to score 66 on 100, compared to 2021. While the reports until 2020 have called India a free country, the scores are consistently dropping since 2017.
While half a decade ago, India scored 77 on 100, the score dropped to 75 in 2019 and 71 in 2020. The report published every year since 1973, tabulates the score based on political rights and civil liberties through a series of surveys and analyses. “...freely elected leaders from Brazil to India have also taken or threatened a variety of anti-democratic actions, and the resulting breakdown in shared values among democracies have led to a weakening of these values on the international stage,” the report notes. On the other hand, 10 years ago, the report had noted significant improvements in India in terms of freedom and had praised the anti-corruption movement run by Anna Hazare. Previously, India’s status was marked as partially free, from 1992 to 1998.
The report had criticised the ruling BJP government in multiple areas. “Democracies in other parts of the world also continue to decline under the influence of freely elected leaders who have embraced illiberal politics. India, which has suffered a series of setbacks to political rights and civil liberties since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reelection in 2019, showed no signs of reversing course, as notable opposition figures faced arrest and surveillance,” it notes. According to the report, some of the pointers that contributed to India’s low scores are the detection of Pegasus in the phones of a few politicians and journalists, the death of activist Stan Swamy, who was imprisoned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the infamous Lakshmipur Kheri incidents.
About internet freedom, India scored a mere 49, the same score as that of Uganda. Here too, the score has come down. The reasons are - the increasing internet shutdowns by governments, low internet penetration and poor infrastructure. “Internet freedom declined slightly in 2016, offsetting gains made in 2014 and 2015. The number of network shutdowns ordered by local authorities increased dramatically,” it says.
India’s freedom scores are similar to that of Bolivia, Hungary and Albania. The countries that have scored the worst include South Sudan, Syria, Tibet, Turkmenistan, Eritrea and North Korea. Sixty-nine countries are currently not free worldwide. This makes the situation worse than in 1973 when only 63 countries were not free. Apart from the worst scorers, the list also includes Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Thailand and Qatar. This is an increase from the last year, where only 54 countries were not free.
At the same time, there is an increase in free countries from 82 to 85, compared to 2021. In this category, while Finland, Sweden and Norway have achieved a perfect 100, besides New Zealand, Canada, Uruguay, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland and Denmark.