Around the world, other countries are following a similar pattern – including the US, during the last year of Donald Trump’s presidency. China, too, dropped in the rankings; while it has long been unquestionably “not free”, over the past few years its leadership has become even more repressive, and President Xi Jinping has consolidated his personal power to a degree unseen in China for decades.

Everywhere, authoritarianism is on the rise. Seventy-three countries – representing 75% of the world’s population – suffered a decline in freedom over 2020, according to the report. On a global level, the situation is the worst it has been since the mid-1990s.

One of the driving factors in the decline of democracy was the COVID-19 pandemic. Repressive regimes spread misinformation, reduced levels of transparency, and crushed voices of dissent. In many cases, lockdowns were enforced with police brutality. And authoritarian leaders exploited the situation to their own benefit, using it as an excuse to silence the political opposition and consolidate their power.

There is real cause for concern around the globe. Yet the case of India, as one of the most populous and influential countries in the world, is particularly alarming.

Muslims and other religious minorities deserve equal rights

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Freedom House focused much of its criticism on the increasingly discriminatory policies towards India’s Muslim population, as well as Modi’s failure to address the economic and social marginalisation of Dalit and Avidasi communities.

First, there was the Citizenship Amendment Act, which singled Muslims out for discrimination. Then, during the anti-CAA protests, law enforcement officials not only failed to contain outbreaks of violence but, in many cases, actively encouraged it. As a result, over fifty people – mostly Muslims – were killed.

The same pattern kept repeating itself: after the outbreak of COVID-19, the government encouraged the conspiracy theories that blamed Muslims for the spread of the virus. Some even faced attacks by vigilante mobs.

The decision of the Uttar Pradesh government to pass a law prohibiting “forced conversion” through interfaith marriage – and thus putting interfaith couples at risk of legal reprisals – also came under criticism. The authorities have already arrested a number of Muslim men under this law. Since there is no evidence for the existence of any kind of “love jihad”, their crime is simply to love a woman from a different religious background.

2020 saw a significant rise in the number of people – mainly journalists, academics, and activists – who were arrested and charged under the sedition laws. Universities have seen violence on campuses, and professors are under pressure to avoid any discussion of any topics deemed “sensitive”, such as India’s relationship with Pakistan.

NGOs involved with human rights work face constant harassment from the authorities and intimidation from police. Since 2015, the government has deregistered over 15,000 organisations based on a law regulating funding received from abroad, which the government has exploited to target any organisations they consider to be political opponents. In September 2020, even Amnesty International was forced to close its Indian offices.

Journalists continue to suffer, and reporting the reality of events has become a risk for many. In 2020 dozens of journalists who were critical of the government response to the pandemic were arrested, and earlier this year the government attempted to block the social media accounts of those reporting on the farmers’ protests. According to the report, “journalists risk harassment, death threats, and physical violence in the course of their work.”

Finally, there are more threats to the free press than ever before, as the government chips away at the independent media. Much of the mainstream media is controlled by the politicians, and the authorities use sedition and hate speech laws to silence any criticism. As a result, “reporting has become significantly less ambitious in recent years.”

The government’s response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was illustrative of its lack of concern for those at the bottom of the social ladder. When the first lockdown was announced with only four hours’ notice, it left millions of rural migrants unable to work or access basic necessities in the cities where they lived.

As a result, they were forced to return to their home villages – often on foot. The scenes of families trudging along the roads in the heat were shocking, and many failed to make it. There were no policies in place to support them; they were forgotten by their leaders.

Democracy is the rule of the people

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Of course, the government simply dismisses the Freedom House analysis - and the V-Dem Institute report, which came to similar conclusions – as biased and misinformed. Yet these reports are both global; the same parameters are applied to every country in the world, and they rely on real facts and data.

No one has the final word on the definition of democracy. But this cannot be dismissed.

The decline is clear. Four years ago, Freedom House gave India a score of 77 out of 100. By last year, this had fallen to 71 – still just acceptable as “free”. Now it’s down to 67, and only “partly free.”

“Under Modi, India appears to have abandoned its potential to serve as a global democratic leader, elevating narrow Hindu nationalist interests at the expense of its founding values of inclusion and equal rights for all,” concludes the report. India’s politicians need to take notice.