A US-based human rights watchdog “Freedom House” released its Freedom in the World 2020 report in the first week of March 2020.
India: The report said India registered the steepest decline in its rankings of the world’s 25 largest democracies because of the scrapping of Kashmir’s special status, the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and the controversial new citizenship law.
Report title: The annual report titled “A Leaderless Struggle for Democracy,” ranked 195 countries using 25 indicators covering seven areas – electoral processes, political processes and pluralism, functioning of government, freedom of expression and belief, rule of law, individual rights and association and organisational rights.
Score: India, though included among “free” countries, dropped from a score of 75/100 in 2019 to 71/100 in 2020.
In contrast, Pakistan and Bangladesh scored 38/100 and 39/100 and China, included among “not free” nations, scored 10/100.
