India is no more the world's largest democracy as the fundamental fabrics and principles of democracy are going crazy in our country under the uprising of the authoritarianism and we must admit that democracy is not something to ascertain based on how large the elections are or how big the country is or even how deep the principles are but rather it depends upon how the nation respects the fundamental rights and principles enshrined in its constitution and how the government understands the voice of the people and protects and promotes their rights and how it performs unbiased, transparent, and authentic governance for its people.

Unfortunately, India trails back of what we call as the principles of democracy and the 2019 Global Democracy Index released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) holds the testament on how our country's state of democracy has been deteriorating due to toxic authoritarianism. India's backtracking rank at the global stage has been revealing that the present government has been making people's power into history. 

The Index had reserved 51st spot for India in its global ranking as India's overall score stooped low from 7.23 in 2018 to 6.90 in 2019 and the decrease in the score had put India in 51st rank in the list of 167 countries in 2019 while India stood at 41st in 2018 and the EIU had cited that the rise and erosion of civil liberties in the country had excessive contribution in slipping away from being a democratic nation.

The reports say that the index has ratified the state of the global democracy based on five categories - electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, political future, and civil liberties and under these classifications, the countries would be listed under four types of the regime - "full democracy" ( which scores above 8 out of 10), "flawed democracy" (scores greater than 6 and less than 8), "hybrid regime" (scores more than 4 and less than 6), "authoritarian regime " (scores less than 4).

In the current ranking, India has been classified under flawed democracy - not a full democracy and some of the world powers have been spotted at low rank as these countries have been upholding the authoritarian regime than the people's governance. China has been awarded 153rd rank in the table of 167 countries and it scored 2.26 in the index as it has been exercising authoritarian regime and so is Putin's Russia which stood at 134th rank with a score of 3.11.

On the other hand, countries like Brazil and Pakistan spotted at 52nd and 108th rank with a score of 6.86 and 4.25 respectively. The ranking revealed that Pakistan moving towards the authoritarian regime while Sri Lanka stood at 69th place with a score of 6.27 and Bangladesh managed its spot at 80th place with a score of 5.88.

Most of the European countries took the first ten spots with Norway at the first rank followed by Iceland and Sweden while New Zealand spotted at the fourth place and Finland took the 5th place while Ireland was ranked 6th in the index. Countries like Denmark (7th), Canada (8th), Australia (9th), and Switzerland (10th) filled up the rest of the spots in top ten as these countries have been ensuring that its people are exercising, enjoying, and enduring the full democracy while North Korea was seen at the bottom of the table with the last rank.

The year 2019 has been one of the years of turmoil and unrest in India as the political grounds have been burning over the controversial Hindutva propaganda and some of the issues that ignited the protests and threatened the civil liberties include the abrogation of special status in Kashmir, Ayodhya Land dispute case, the proposal of National Register of Citizens, and implementing the biased and handicapped Citizenship Amendment Act.

To know more, visit: https://www.eiu.com/n/global-democracy-in-retreat/