India classified as "electoral autocracy" by global institute

(Karachi) India has been labelled as an "electoral autocracy" due to controversial censorship laws enforced by Narendra Modi-led BJP government and restrictions on free speech, a report published by Sweden-based Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute said.

The report comes days after US-based think tank, Freedom House, released its annual report on global political rights and liberties, downgrading India’s status as a democracy and free society to “partly free”.

As per details, V-Dem Institute's report highlighted that India witnessed a 23-percentage point drop on its 0-to-1 Liberal Democracy Index (LDI) scale, marking one of the most dramatic shifts among all countries in the world over the past 10 years.

“Most of the decline occurred following BJP’s victory in 2014 and their Hindu nationalist agenda,” the report stated.

“India is, in this aspect (censorship) now as autocratic as is Pakistan, and worse than both its neighbors Bangladesh and Nepal. In general, the Modi-led government in India has used laws on sedition, defamation, and counterterrorism to silence critics. For example, over 7,000 people have been charged with sedition after the BJP assumed power and most of the accused are critics of the ruling party,” the V-Dem Institute revealed.

It mentioned that the Indian government used defamation frequently to silence journalists and the use of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) have placed constraints on civil society and gone against the Constitution’s commitment to secularism.

“Amended in August 2019 (it) is being used to harass, intimidate, and imprison political opponents, as well as people mobilizing to protest government policies. The UAPA has been used also to silence dissent in academia. The universities and authorities have also punished students and activists engaged in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA),” it said.

The report notes that civil society is being increasingly muzzled while organisations aligned with the “Hindutva movement” have gained freedom. “The BJP have increasingly used the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) to restrict the entry, exit and functioning of Civil Society Organisations (CSO),” it transpired.