India dropped to 53rd rank in the 2020 Democracy Index global ranking, dropping two places since 2019 when it was at 51st rank. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) classified India as a “flawed democracy,” along with countries like the US, France, Belgium and Brazil, the Economic Times reported. The EIU said that the erosion of civil liberties and “democratic backsliding” by authorities caused the regressive ranking. The report alleged that the government, led by PM Narendra Modi, has “introduced a religious element to the concept of Indian citizenship, a step that many critics see as undermining the secular basis of the Indian state”.
