India 83rd in freedom index; ranked along with Iran, Sudan

New Delhi:India's record has shown a massive decline among world's 25 largest democracies in the new report by Freedom House, the oldest American organisation dedicated to the support and defence of democracy around the world, a report in The Telegraph stated.

America based Freedom House has placed India among "countries in the spotlight'' along with Haiti, Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey, Hong Kong and Ukraine. This category shows a list of the countries where important developments have affected their democratic nature and deserve special observation in 2020.

According to the report by Freedom House, there are three reasons behind this steep fall: Abrogation of article 370, which gave a special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, the implementation of the National Register of Citizens(NRC) in Assam and the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

India has ranked 83rd in the 'Freedom in the World 2020' report along with Timor-Leste and Senegal. This is near the bottom of the list of the countries categorised as "Free", with only Tunisia receiving a lower score. India fell sharply by four points, the worst decline among the world's 25 largest democracies this year.

Whilst half of the world's democratic countries have seen a degradation of their scores, India's drop is the sharpest and could "blur the values-based distinction between Beijing and New Delhi'', the India chapter in the Freedom in the World 2020 report noted.

It was mainly because of the conduct of elections, that India received a "Free" rating. But this report tersely criticises Modi government for pushing the country away from the "founding commitment to pluralism and individual rights, without which democracy cannot long survive".

The report says, "Almost since the turn of the century, the United States and its allies have courted India as a potential strategic partner and democratic counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific region.