Freedom House, one of the world’s leading watchdogs on democracy, in its latest report in 2021 downgraded India from being an “independent country” to a “slightly independent” country. BJP leader Rakesh Sinha termed it as anti-India agenda.
Freedom House is an independent non-governmental organization that conducts research on democracy, but it is also funded by the US government.
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The report says that under the Bharatiya Janata Party, “the world’s largest democracy is now moving towards dictatorship.”
The report examines events in 195 countries and 15 regions from January 2020 to December 31, 2020.
Prominent BJP leader and Member of Parliament Prof Rakesh Sinha said in his response to the report that “this report is part of the anti-India agenda.” They have called it a ‘tactic of imperialism’.
He said that the geographical imperialism of the Western powers is over but the imperialism of their thinking is not over yet. In Narendra Modi’s government, everyone has complete freedom to criticize the policies of the government and the judiciary is completely independent.”
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He said that in India, the media is “free” and that hundreds of TV channels in the country “discuss freely” on every subject every day.
The Freedom House report cites violence against Muslim citizens, intimidation of journalists and judicial intervention.
The Freedom House report says that instead of India becoming a champion of democratic attitudes, Narendra Modi and his party are pushing India towards dictatorship.
The report says that it seems that under the leadership of Narendra Modi, India has given priority to advancing the interests of Hindu nationalism, abandoning the basic principles of equal rights and inclusiveness for all and Has given up his desire to become a democratic leader.
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The Freedom House report says that during the Covid-19 epidemic, the Indian government issued a “crude lockdown” order that affected millions of poor workers who had to walk long distances to reached their village.
The report said that the Hindu nationalist movement tried to turn Muslims into scapegoats by accusing them of spreading the epidemic of cod, which led to mob attacks on Muslims.
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