The much-talked Sweden-based V-Dem Institute ranking has labeled India as an ‘electoral autocracy. The institute has said that India is no longer an ‘electoral democracy, classifying the country as an ‘electoral autocracy. The institute mentioned that much of the decline in democratic freedoms occurred post UPA era that ended in May 2014. India has moved to the bottom 50% of the countries analyzed by V Dem. In last year’s report, India was in the top 50%. The report has suggested that there is a deterioration of political and civil liberties in the country. To put it simply, the institute is suggesting India’s political democracy is on the decline since the end of the corruption-tainted UPA’s rule in 2014. UPA’s ten-year term [2004-14] is best known for coalition mismanagement, political corruption, policy paralysis, nepotism and misgovernance.
The report not only questioned the political leadership of the country but in a way doubted the wisdom of 911 million eligible voters of the country. The people have overwhelmingly voted for the Modi-led NDA government twice.
This is not the first time India has been poorly placed in an international ranking system recognized by the western world. In fact, the economic survey 2020-21 has even noted that even the credit rankings of India do not reflect its political and economic fundamentals. India is the 3rd largest economy in PPP terms and yet has been ranked has been rated BBB-/Baa3. Never in the history of sovereign credit ratings has the fifth largest economy in the world been rated as the lowest rung of the investment grade. China is also been the victim of this rating. In short, such ratings are west centric that do not take into account Asian Values.
I would bring the important parameters that give a different picture of India’s democracy.
Political Democracy
The so-called world’s oldest democracy the US has seen its decline since 2016. The growing backlash against globalization and internationalism; growing dissatisfaction with democratic governments’ perceived ineffectiveness; and the growing disintermediation of politics have become the features of new polity everywhere. In an era of ‘illiberal democracy, India stands as a beacon of hope for the west too. India is a parliamentary democracy with an independent and integrated judiciary. Even the parliament is not sovereign in India like in the case of the UK. Not very long ago the 99th Constitutional amendment Act was struck down by the apex court. The supreme court declined to accept the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act and the 99th Constitution Amendment act, called it as “unconstitutional and void”, a law which was backed by a 2/3rd majority in both houses.
There is no universal definition of democracy. Countries in the East and those in the west are at different stages of development and have different sets of priorities. A reformist government in India may look authoritarian for the rest. Farm Laws, CAA, GST are once in century reforms, they had to be backed by the sheer majority both in the parliament as well on the streets for their implementation.
The key to India’s success is that India is ruled by a government that is accountable to parliament and has to face people every 5 years and for states, 5-6 states elections are conducted every year. Before a bill is made into law, it has to pass through rigorous parliamentary processes. Bill introduced in parliament must pass through both the houses of parliament, it also faces the test of judicial review post-enactment. In fact, India has been the most successful in the region.
Independence of Judiciary
The framers of the Constitution established an independent and impartial judiciary in India. The government has absolutely no say in appointing the judges barring a one-time option asking the collegium to reconsider their decision. In fact, with “Three Judges cases”, this independence has only been solidified in favor of the judiciary. Only the judges can question the judge in India’s political system.
Free, Fair, and Efficient Elections:
Free and fair connotes an absence of voting fraud, systematic irregularities, government intimidation of the opposition, and election violence. India being the largest democracy has become the role model for numerous emerging democracies across the globe. India has an independent Election Commission to look after the affairs of the electoral process. India has mastered itself in conducting the world’s largest franchise exercise. Americans still feel safer in using paper ballots as compared to electronic voting machines, as Indians do. A rich superpower like the US struggles and takes over a week to complete the vote-counting process which India completes at four times the scale in a matter of hours.
Decentralization
India is one of the few democracies that has made the 3rd tier of government a constitutional obligation, 73rd, and 74th amendment acts officially provided for the establishment of Local Self-government. This has extended the right of people to self-govern, there are more than 250,000 panchayats in India. The devolution of power from the state government to the 3rd tier with the constitutional obligation to conduct election every five years has been turning stone in India’s democracy.
Size of Economy
India today is a 3 trillion-dollar robust and emerging economy and is witnessing an unprecedented V-shaped recovery from the impact of the pandemic. India has a track record of zero sovereign default, a rare achievement. India’s sovereign external debt as a percent of GDP stood at 4% (September 2020). Moreover, 54% of India’s sovereign external foreign currency-denominated debt was owed to multilateral and IMF, which is not expected to impact credit rating assessments. India’s forex reserves stood at US$ 584.24 as of January 2021. The amount is large enough to cover India’s total external debt, sovereign as well as non-sovereign. Yet, India is rated much below expectation.
The indexes are euro-centric have inherent “home bias” for the countries which have the followed western model of democracy and economic policies. Comparative politics is a sub-discipline of political science which deals with the comparison of the polity of different nations. However often the methodology used by these academians and scholars is parochial and ethnocentric. There is an inherent bias in this ranking system against the developing and emerging economies. Indian ethics are not based on the concept of dichotomy. India does not distinguish between world peace and national security. For India national security lies in peaceful neighbors. For the western world, development and democracy are two distinct terms. For India democracy induces equitable development and development brings the democratization of the political system. For India, a developed society is a more democratic one.
Having mentioned all the fundamentals of being a liberal democracy, we should not ignore the fact that the International Advisory Board of V-Dem constitutes people like Niraja Gopal Jayal (Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi); Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Aitzaz Ahsan (Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of Pakistan). These names speak a lot about the credibility of the report.
Policy Recommendations
India must develop its own ratings to counter the hegemony of western institutions. It is indeed a great move that the ministry of external affairs is mulling to establish a “world democracy report” as well as a “global press freedom index”. India’s think tanks should be roped in to collect data across the world to come out of more realistic and comprehensive indexes. While it is necessary to look into international standings to correct the policy but too much obsession might prove counter-productive. India’s economic and developmental policies should be guided by its own considerations of national interest and domestic growth and development should be the guiding principle rather than be restrained by biased and subjective international ratings of western institutions. BRICS, RIC, and other platforms of developing economies must utilize to address the biases and subjectivity inherent in these ratings and indexes methodology.
About Author: 37 वर्षों तक ग्रामीण बैंक में सेवा उपरान्त वरीय प्रबंधक पद से सेवानिवृत हैं विभिन्न सामाजिक संगठनों से जुड़े रहने के अतरिक्त भारतीय मज़दूर संघ में जिला स्तर से प्रदेश स्तर के विभिन्न नेतृत्व पदों का निर्वहन के साथ B.M.S. से सम्बद्ध All India Gramin Bank Officers’ Organisation में राष्ट्रीय सचिव का दायित्व निर्वहन किया है. भारत सरकार के श्रम एवं रोजगार मंत्रालय द्वारा नियुक्त Chairman (Regional Advisory Committee) Dattopant Thengari National Board for Workers’ Education and Development भी रहा है.
