India's Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, said that "flawed" surveys and international comparisons of electoral rankings actually harmed democracy, even if unintentionally.
He that the indices were not inclusive enough and that those countries with lower inclusivity were ranked higher.
"I would like to point out that when the EMBs (election management bodies) or EAs (election authorities), are involved and busy in conducting elections, and in our case since we do provincial elections also elections after elections. In the meantime, comes some survey report, kind of, ratings, where one is not sure how much of the inclusive aspects are taken as parameters because the parameters themselves are not very well-known or very well-publicised,” said Kumar.
His comments came on Thursday, March 9, at the Third International Conference on the theme ‘Inclusive Elections and Elections Integrity' in Bengaluru, in the presence of other dignitaries from other electoral agencies.
"Contrarily, those with low inclusivity are often ranked high. This proposition needs rectification. Flawed surveys or reports cause more damage, maybe unintentionally. It causes damage to the credibility of the EMBs and EAs and the credibility of such outputs by the survey agencies and democracy by default", he added.
Incidentally, his comments also came just days after V-Dem, or Varieties of Democracy in its annual democracy report four days ago, placed India 97 on its Liberal Democracy Index of 179 countries.
The report termed India an 'electoral autocracy'. While India has had that designation since 2017 (and in 1975 and 1976), this report states that India was one of the worst autocarizers of the past ten years.
"In India, the ruling right-wing, Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm continues to suppress religious freedom", the report said.
About the report
V-Dem is an institution quantifying and measuring democracy. It is hosted by the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
Their report centers on the Liberal Democracy Index. "It combines the 'core' institutions of electoral democracy with the liberal dimension: constraints on the executive by the legislature and the judiciary, and the rule of law ensuring respect for civil liberties," the report adds.
According to the report, democracy levels are those similar to 1986, wiping off gains in democracy over the last 35 years. Levels of democracy in the Asia-Pacific is back to that of 1978, while levels in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean are similar to period at the end of the Cold War.
Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Estonia were ranked at the top five positions, scoring 0.89, 0.87, 0.86, 0.85, and 0.85 points, respectively, out of a possible 1 point. North Korea, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Chad and Syria are the bottom five.
India ranks 97th, with a score of 0.31. The standard deviation (or level of uncertainty) for India's score is 0.039, which is 'statistically significant' - which quantifies whether a result is likely due to chance or to some other factor.
In the component indices India ranks as follows:
- 108th on the Electoral Democracy Index
- 90th on the Liberal Component Index
- 123rd on the Egalitarian Component Index
- 73rd on the Participatory Component Index
- 95th on Deliberative Component Index
India is placed right above Malaysia, Benin, Kuwait and the Philippines, but below Mexico, Hungary, Singapore and Nigeria.
However, this is not the first time that V-Dem's report has been censured in India.
In March 2021, Rajya Sabha Chairman and then Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu shut down a Member of Parliament who asked a question on India's sliding rank citing the report. He stated that such reports are political and had nothing to do with India. "Countries commenting on the internal affairs of India should look inward and then talk about things", Naidu said.
Previously, the government had taken issues with the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) annual Democracy Index. While India's score improved marginally this year and its rank remained unchanged at 46 of 167 over last year, the makers of the report have noted that India's fall in ranking happened under the incumbent government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government has previously moved to block questions being asked on the index in Rajya Sabha, as noted here. They also engaged with the EIU to use data provided by the government themselves, but their offer was declined as the EIU maintained that they did their surveys independently.
The ruling dispensation has a history of refuting reports that were critical of it. Previously, the government has spoken against the findings of the Global Hunger Index, the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, the Global Pension Index, the Press Freedom Index and the Corruption Perception Index.
Also Read: From Hunger To Press Freedom: Global Reports The Govt Disagrees With