Most of us live every minute of our short life to survive. Between our careers, friends, family and amusing us with some form of entertainment, we do not realize that few actors of democracy & anti-democracy cuff us to maintain power.
"India, the world's most populous democracy dropped from Free to Partly Free status in Freedom In The World 2021."
When I saw this headline, my curiosity peaked as to what entailed in the article and who was behind the report that smacked my home country in the face with a subtle future-authoritarian or fascist tag. But truthfully, the events Indians have experienced in the last couple of years, I was shocked and not surprised.
As I read the report, the introduction said - "These withering blows marks the 15th consecutive year of decline in global freedom."
The blows report refers to a deadly global pandemic, economic and physical insecurity, and violent conflicts worldwide.
This is an unfortunate statement - 15th consecutive year, many of us have been living under a belief that we are free.
The year 2020 started with initiating a deadly pandemic in the world's most populous dictatorship, China. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was blamed for the cover-up. I can imagine the party leader and the president of PRC, Xi Jinping, sitting with his team in a conference room and realizing that this tragedy their country embarked on the world could be an opportunity. Something similar to what Christian Bale was shown doing when he portrayed the USA's most infamous vice-president - Dick Cheney in the movie Vice. China was the largest contributor to World Health Organization (WHO), and magically the pandemic they started has vanished in thin air over last year, while the world's oldest and strongest democracy, the US, has thrown insults at WHO.
But enough is being said about pandemic. It was just another diversion, a perfect one as it may come, to hide the incompetencies our leaders have. The report I referred to earlier has mentioned other significant issues like economic insecurities (one might argue that came with the pandemic, but if we look beyond the top ten economies, we see an issue lingering for a while) and violent conflicts around the world.
Before we go into these factors and see how authorities carry out these unilateral decisions in the name of the people development, the question has to be asked on who are people behind Freedom House is and what methodology and research they have used to make such claims about different nations.
Freedom House was formed in 1941 to fight against fascism and promote American involvement in World War II. Well, there you go; if the foundation of this organization is so pure and true to humanity, do we need to question their existence and techniques? Not a fan of sarcasm? Please go and do some reading on World War II and how America was involved & please do not conclude by only Pearl Harbour. But it's been 70 years to this foundation, and we can safely assume they have much clearer intentions, robust methodologies at their service rather than justifying involvement in a war across the continent.
Freedom in the World uses a two-tiered system consisting of scores & status. A country or territory is awarded points between 0 to 4 for each of 10 political indicators, grouped into three categories - Electoral Process, Political Pluralism and Participation, and Functioning of Government. The points are also awarded based on 15 civil liberties indicators grouped into four subcategories - Freedom of Expression and Belief, Associational and Organizational Rights, Rule of Law, and Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights. The questions to analyze these indicators are - whether the electoral process is fair and free? Are the electoral laws and framework fair and impartial? And many more.
Freedom in the World, 2021 edition covers events and developments in 195 countries and 15 territories in 2020. The research and review process involved 125 analysts, nearly 40 advisers. The research was done by studying news articles (great start!), a broad range of sources, reports from non-governmental organizations, and other methods.
The question should be raised on the methodology of Freedom House. The news sources are mostly biased, untrue-to-the-core, unethical business corporations. The true meaning of free press and honourable journalism is lost a long time back.
Even in the world's strongest and oldest democracy - the USA, two of the biggest news networks are entirely biased and at the end of the spectrum (CNN vs. FOX News). Similar bias is observed in India between NDTV and Republic TV (although Republic is not one of India's most significant news networks, but one of the loudest. Republic was subjected to investigation in TRP scam, so its credibility is of a question here.)
The ruling power controls the news networks in communist countries like China, Russia, some middle-eastern countries. It is like a car salesman rating the manufacturer number one and then selling it to us based on that ranking.
Harvard graduate developed the methodology for Freedom in the World in 1972, and it has been updated timely and incrementally for keeping consistencies. The report claims to be subjective, and methodology supports the subjectivity. You can read the complete report and methodology here.
In 2020, India dropped from free to partly free. As per the report, India's score only dropped by 4, which means India has been in democratic decline for a while now. 2019 saw the government of Narendra Modi get reelected with a more significant margin than in 2014. The government then revoked article 370 and 35a from the constitution, which gave the state autonomy. It was done in the name of the state's development and was met with a tremendous positive response all across India. But on-ground reality was that the locals have to live with a heavy military presence, no internet connections, and a constant threat of being called anti-national. The news networks celebrated the government and congratulated Modi on this historic achievement. But just by opening one eye, it was clear that local people who were the most affected by this change were not asked about their opinion.
It was followed by large amounts of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Acts (December 2019 to March 2020), which were only halted due to a pandemic's arrival. The pandemic called for one-nation, and it started that way with Modi, with all his charismatic orating skills called for togetherness. But it was short-lived. The Hindu nationalist ruling party then scapegoated Muslims (Tablighi Cast event on 22 March 2020) for spreading the virus across India. Though our logic says that event should have never taken place, our leaders and the free press coming out and singling them out as the main factor for COVID-19 in India does not display democracy and freedom. In 2021, India faces protests from the local farmers for a policy, but these protests will be covered in next year's edition. We can expect to see more decline in the score for India.
The report covers some saddening events worldwide, like the war in Nagorno-Karabakh regions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Both nations threw dirt balls filled with blame on each other for the initiation of actions. These nation's leaders justified the war for controlling a strategic route near the Ganja gap, which serves as an energy and transport corridor for Azerbaijan. Sadly citizens of both nations had little say in spending their own money, sacrificing the lives of 6500 combatants and hundreds of civilians.
The CCP was blamed internationally for the cover-up for initial cases of COVID-19. They have worked hard to make up for the loss of reputation by supplying medical devices, personal protective equipments (PPE) and sometimes blaming other countries like Italy for the origins of the virus. But this is expected of China and somewhat respectful because they do not hide behind the letters of democracy.
The United States saw an 11 point decline in the last decade, making it one of the countries that saw the largest decline. The most bizarre events of all took place in 2021 when a mob of thousands marched on US Capitol after allegedly incited by President Trump. Even though Trump's coup attempt was futile and the US got their act together in a matter of hours, it showed a side of the country that has punished other countries for not upholding democratic principles. It was one of the funniest (if you are outside of the US) and saddest day to witness, and CNN had a field day on 6 January 2021. The memes and tweets flooded the internet, with one saying, "If the US saw what the US is doing in the US, the US would invade the US to liberate the US from the tyranny of the US."
We are in the 21st century, with educational levels high, awareness levels high, connectivity at its peak, cross-cultural understanding at its peak. Still, we, as a society, are being succumbed to authoritarian rules. Why are we playing along with these heads of state? What kind of ammunition these rulers have that has us silent? Or are we just trying to survive in our challenges that we don't care?
The first problem I see is the average age of our rulers. Now, this could make me sound like an ageist. The average age of the leaders in democratic countries is not declining. The US elected a leader who is 78 years when he took office. Along with the concerns of the leader's physical and mental health, the ideology of the leader is problematic. World War II was supposed to end communism, and the allies fought various wars afterward to make sure democracy prevails in countries like Korea, Vietnam, Gulf and other countries. Though they failed to impact these expensive and meaningless wars, the current leaders were around for these wars. They have seen the progress communist countries have made and are using these ideas as their justification to consolidate power. After World War II, China was mostly ignored for about 25 years till the 1970s. After that, just by tweaking Mao's ideology, they removed the stigma of communism and now have become the world's largest economy in terms of GDP purchasing power parity (PPP) and second-largest by GDP nominal.
The second problem is the state of journalism in the world. Free press is a thing of history now. Associated Press is the funniest joke of our century. The news channels are openly supportive of one of the political parties, and their coverage is meant only to help the causes of those parties. In the US, the Fox News channel was created for the sole purpose of being a Republican-centred alternative to CNN. We depend primarily on journalism (traditionally through television networks and now through social media) to understand the events around us and form an opinion. So when the Hindu nationalist government of India bombards the misinformation about Muslims being spreaders of the virus, the masses believe it, or masses chose to believe it because nobody has the tenacity to search for truth. When the issues are expanding, twisted and turned about racism, the elections are turned, or the sacred institutions like the US Capitol are attacked. The misinformation makes sure these leaders have the least possible resistance from the public and enough room to achieve their goals.
Enough has been said about social media giants, tech companies, data privacy. I will not expand on it, or I will be standing in a corner and screaming at the wall.
So, all said and done, where are we heading, and what would be the change agent?
Since the birth of the internet in the 1990s and its exponential growth in the last decade, we are heading for another giant war (yes, I am deliberately not calling it World War because the allied countries will not be controlling the majority of the population this time.) The conclusion of this war will be a treaty signed by those left powerful, probably the US, China, Russia, India and some other powers. The treaty will have strict regulations on data regulations, something similar to the conclusion of other wars fought for oil.
Time will tell. Meanwhile, let's go out there and hope our next generation does not have to live in a fascist country (if you are not living in one already).
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