India

EIU Democracy Index 2020: India's rank slips 2 places, 'democratic backsliding' blamed for fall

Updated : February 03, 2021 03:47 PM IST

Three countries in Asia — Japan, South Korea and Taiwan — were upgraded to "full democracies."

The EIU said the "democratic backsliding" authorities and "crackdowns" on civil liberties has led to a further decline in India’s ranking.

In the 2020 edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit's annual Democracy Index, which provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide, India's score fell from a peak of 7.92 (on a scale of 0-10) in 2014 to 6.61 in 2020.

The country’s global ranking dipped to 53 from 27. Meanwhile, three countries in Asia — Japan, South Korea and Taiwan — were upgraded to "full democracies", while Europe lost two — France and Portugal.

India's rank slipped two places to 53 in the 2020 Democracy Index's global ranking. The country was ranked 51 in the 2019 Democracy Index. The EIU said the "democratic backsliding" authorities and "crackdowns" on civil liberties has led to a further decline in India’s ranking.

Also read: Greta Thunberg extends support to farmers' protest

"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, a member of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who became prime minister in 2014 and was re-elected for a second term in 2019,” stated the report.

It added, "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."

However, India’s rank was higher than most of its neighbouring countries, such as Sri Lanka (68), Bangladesh (76), Bhutan (84) and Pakistan (105).

Also read: COVID-19 travel curbs: Less than 3 million foreign tourists visited India in 2020, says govt

Overall, the average global score fell from 5.44 to 5.37, making it the worst score since the index was launched in 2006. About 70 percent of the countries — 116 out of a total of 167 — saw a decline in their score vis-à-vis 2019.

Only 38 (22.6 percent) saw an improvement, while the score of 13 countries remained stagnated, stated The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) update. The scores for Asia and Australasia, the region that had made most democratic progress since the index was launched, fell by 0.05.

Norway topped EIU Democracy Index report titled “Democracy Index 2020, In sickness and in health?”. Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Canada were the other countries that made up the top five.

EIU Democracy Index 2020: India's rank slips 2 places, 'democratic backsliding' blamed for fall

You May Also Like

Republican Senator opposes Biden admin's move to revert to lottery system for issuing H-1B visas

M&M; walks away from SsangYong with Rs 1,200 crore impairment, says capital allocation actions almost complete

IRDAI encourages insurers to launch 'Mashak Rakshak' policies from April 1 to cover vector borne diseases

Trending on CNBC-TV18

recommended for you