“India Drops from ‘Free’ to ‘Partly Free’ Status” Global Freedom Report, 2021

Courtesy Freedom House

The report laments that

“India, the world’s most populous democracy, dropped from Free to Partly Free status in Freedom in the World 2021. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its state-level allies continued to crack down on critics during the year, and their response to COVID-19 included a ham-fisted lockdown that resulted in the dangerous and unplanned displacement of millions of internal migrant workers. The ruling Hindu nationalist movement also encouraged the scapegoating of Muslims, who were disproportionately blamed for the spread of the virus and faced attacks by vigilante mobs. Rather than serving as a champion of democratic practice and a counterweight to authoritarian influence from countries such as China, Modi and his party are tragically driving India itself toward authoritarianism.”

The Score, out of 100 and status, for India and Indian Kashmir reads as follows:

* Indicates a territory as opposed to an independent country.

Two questions, for the publisher of this report, may be in order:

1. How dare you show Indian Kashmir as (independent) territory)?
2. Who chose you as the arbiter of the freedom in various countries of the world?

For the benefit of those of you who didn’t care even to know the publisher:

Freedom House: The Publisher of This Report is stated to be

“freedom house, an independent non-governmental organization, champions democracy worldwide through its research, education, advocacy and action.”

Freedom House’s  Action During the reporting period has been stated as

“Freedom House Continued to provide technical and financial resources to civil society organization and front- line defenders around the world in support of their work to protect fundamental freedoms and democratic systems.”

Freedom House was formed in 1941. Despite great actions by Freedom House kinds there have been “15 years of Decline”, of freedom in the world, during 2005-2020. Please see figure below:

Freedom House Funding

As of June 2019, out of total contributions and gifts, etc. of $48 million, $45 million were government grants. (https://www.open990.org/org/131656647/freedom-house-inc/)

You may thus see the true nature of non- government organization where 94% of its funds come from government.

Finland, Norway, Sweden, scored 100/100.

The population of all the three 100/100 scoring countries, put together, is less than population of one city (Mumbai) of India. The size does matter. It should not be ignored in any analysis.

The best about size I read was, “two wives are not double, the trouble of one wife”.

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