Displaying yet another awful example that India is failing to sustain as the global democratic leader, the latest global report on freedom has alarmed the world's largest democracy that it has been signing off from the democratic standards and moving towards the autocratic regime as the what was built as territory of people's rule has now been getting shaped as the territory of diminishing civil liberties and freedom. 

According to the latest report released by Freedom House with the title 'Freedom in the World 2021-Democracy under Siege', India has dropped from a 'Free' to a 'Partly Free' status as the sequel of eroding democracy. Freedom House is a US-based not-for-profit organization and it is an independent watchdog organization dedicated to the expansion of freedom around the world. The organization has now released its annual report on the global freedom enjoyed by people in which India was downgraded in the list. 

With this downgrade, the report stated that less than 20% of the world's population now lives in a 'Free' country, the smallest proportion since 1995. According to reports, the current status report marks the 15th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. The Freedom House report underlined that the lockdown has caused distress to several lakh interstate migrant workers, who were adversely affected amid the pandemic. 

The report had also noted that the ruling Hindu nationalist movement encouraged the scapegoating of Muslims who were disproportionately blamed for the spread of the Coronavirus and faced attacks by bigotry mobs. The report had mentioned that India's fall from the upper ranks of free nations could have a particularly damaging impact on global democratic standards. 

The Freedom House highlighted, "India's status declined from Free to Partly Free due to a multiyear pattern in which the Hindu nationalist government and its allies have presided over rising violence and discriminatory policies affecting the Muslim population and pursued a crackdown on expressions of dissent by the media, academics, civil society groups, and protesters". "The decline only surged after Modi's re-election in 2019. Last year, the government had intensified its crackdown on protesters opposed to a discriminatory citizenship law and arrested dozens of journalists who aired criticism of the official pandemic response", the report added. 

The Freedom House report further stated, "While India is a multiparty democracy, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu Nationalist BJP have presided over discriminatory policies and increased violence affecting the Muslim population. The constitution guarantees civil liberties including freedom of expression and freedom of religion, but harassment of journalists, non-governmental organizations, and critics has increased in recent times under Modi's regime. 

It also has said that Muslims, Dalits, and Adivasis remain economically and socially marginalized. The Freedom House has been publishing its reports annually on freedom since 1972 and it reports on 195 countries and 15 related and disputed territories used by policymakers, the media, international corporations, civic activists, and human rights defenders. The Freedom House will be awarding the marks to the countries out of 100 based on the status of freedom and democracy. 

In 2018, 2019, and 2020, India had been rated as "free" in Freedom House's reports. India has scored 77, 75, and 71 out of 100 in these three years respectively and in the latest report, India had a score of 67 out of 100 through which it can be learned that the country has lost four points than the preceding year and it also had lost the status of "Free" and joined the awful club of "Partly Free". According to reports, Freedom House assesses every country with the help of about 125 analysts and more than 40 consultants. 

While India had lost its tag of "Free" country, New Zealand tops the table in the world by scoring 99 out of 100 followed by Canada with a score of 98 while the United Kingdom stands at third place with 93 marks. The United States had scored 83 and India's neighbors Nepal and Sri Lanka had 56 marks each. On the front of the least "free" country that exercises authoritarian regime, Russia has got 20 marks out of 100 while China has scored 9 out of 100 and Saudi Arabia ended up scoring only 7 out of 100. 

Must-Check: Global Map of Freedom House