MEA Paper on Democracy

February 23, 2022

To counter the nation’s democracy ranking from being downgraded, the Ministry of External Affairs created presentations on democracy and sent them to the Lok Sabha Secretariat so that they can be distributed among the Heads of Mission in foreign countries.

Overview:

In March 2021, the Swedish-based V-Dem Institute and the US-based Freedom House had downgraded India’s democracy, giving reasons that there was discrimination against minorities, limits on civil society, and the crackdown on free speech.
The MEA was extremely critical of the reports presented by these two organizations and hit out at them by saying that their opinions about the Indian democracy were not needed.
To counter this the MEA created presentations to showcase Indian democracy.
This MEA report is titled ‘The Indian Way’.

What is the Lok Sabha Secretariat?

The Lok Sabha Secretariat is an independent office that works under the direction of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

About Freedom House

Freedom House is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. that carries out research on political freedom, democracy, and human rights. Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie served as this organization’s first honorary chairpersons when it was created in October 1941. The Freedom in the World report, an important publication of this organization is cited by political scientists, journalists, and policymakers globally.

About V-Dem Institute

This institute was founded by Professor Staffan I. Lindberg in 2014. It is supported by various organizations such as the World Bank and other research institutes. The headquarters of this institute is at the University of Gothenburg’s Department of Political Science in Sweden. This institute distinguishes among five high-level democratic principles which are liberal, electoral, deliberative, participatory, and egalitarian, and data are collected to measure them.

« Previous Post Next Post »