Ratings compiled by foreign entities are not always the most accurate assessments on India, but if the “establishment” can cite such indices to sell the story of economic revival it must have the moral fortitude to accept the findings of studies that prove unfavourable. In that context it can please nobody that India has slipped 10 places on the Global Democracy Index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, and ranks 42nd on that list ~ warranting India to be described as a “flawed democracy”. That the United States, Japan, Italy and France are also in the same bracket is no cause for comfort ~ since India takes pride in calling itself the world’s most populous democracy. To be placed 42 on a list of 165 nations (Norway is at the top) is not exactly a tribute to the framers of the Constitution whose accomplishment was feted only a few days back.

Of particular concern is the EIU’s noting that the 10-place decline was due to the “rise of conservative religious ideologies” and an increase in vigilantism and violence against minorities, as well as other dissenting voices. The EIU makes no political evaluations, but it would be self-deluding not to perceive in its analysis a reflection of domestic criticism of raging intolerance, electoral polarisation and divisive sentiments. That the EIU also places media freedom at the lower end of the scale complements the negative assessment of how “free” India really is.

Critics of the Bharatiya Janata Party would discern in the survey an endorsement of their charges against the conduct of the lesser lights of the government ~ some recent examples being the utterances flowing after the violence in Kasganj. Which come in the wake of a string of “pressures” on minority communities and the convenient overlapping of “Muslim” with Pakistan, giving rise to concepts like “love jihad” etc.

The government has just utilised the presentation of the budget for 2018-19 to sound a fanfare of self-adulation. It matters little if the budget speeches, and all that official spokespersons may say, serve to silence political criticism ~ the Opposition is ever blind to what any government attains ~ yet the conclusions of the EIU cannot be rubbished easily. The nation is slowly moving towards a general election, and as the budget documents aver, a slew of welfare-oriented programmes have been announced.

Much will depend on the extent to which those schemes trickle down to dispel images of a “pro-rich” administration. But while those schemes may facilitate electoral success, the essential Indian ethos will not be bolstered as long as the common perception persists that the minority communities, Dalists, tribals, and marginalised sections remain on the fringes of the growth story ~ as registered on the EIU’s Global Democracy Index.