Annual Democracy Report- (V-Dem)

 The Swedish organisation Institute for Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) has released its fifth annual democracy report entitled "Autocratisation goes viral". The report summarizes the state of world democracies in the context of developments in the past decade. Highlights: Regarding India: ♦ India's status has been reduced from "the world's largest democracy" to an "electoral autocracy." ♦ Reasons behind the downgrade: media " muzzling " and excessive use of defamation and sedition laws. ♦ As far as censorship is concerned, India’s current authoritarianism is the same as Pakistan’s, and worse than its neighbours Nepal and Bangladesh. ♦

The use of slander "often silence journalists" and the use of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) constitute restrictions on civil society and violate the Constitution's commitment to secularism. ♦ The university and the authorities have also punished students and activists who participated in the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). " ♦ However, the report pointed out that while the organizations allied with the " Hindutva movement " gained freedom, civil society was increasingly restricted. Freedom at global level: ♦ Over the past ten years, liberal democracies have decreased from 41 countries to 32 countries. ♦ In the past ten years, the global decline has been large and will continue to decline in 2020, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. ♦ In 2020, the level of democracy enjoyed by ordinary citizens worldwide has dropped to the last level around 1990. ♦ "Electoral despotism" is still the most popular type of regime. Like closed despotism, there are 87 states, accounting for 68% of the world's population. ♦ The Group of G20 nations such as Brazil, India, Turkey and the United States of America are part of this transformation. ♦ The number of democratized countries has been reduced by nearly half to 16, accounting for only 4% of the global population.