Modi govt rebukes Freedom House report calling India ‘partly free’, pushes blame on states

Hyderabad: The central government on Friday released a rebuttal following an international report marking India as a ‘partly free’ country. The Centre called the report “misleading, incorrect and misplaced” and offered a clarification to all the points raised against India.
“India’s status declined from ‘Free’ to ‘Partly Free’ due to a multiyear pattern in which the Hindu nationalist government and its allies have presided over rising violence and discriminatory policies affecting the Muslim population and pursued a crackdown on expressions of dissent by the media, academics, civil society groups, and protesters,” the Freedom House  report  said on India’s status change to ‘partly free’.
In its defence, the ministry of information & broadcasting released a statement on its website stating that the federal structure where most states are ruled by parties other than the one at the national level through an election process which is free and fair, conducted by an “independent” Election Commission. The statement claimed this reflects the working of a “vibrant democracy that India stands for”.
Also Read ‘Driving towards authoritarianism’: US think tank ranks India ‘partly free’ Very clearly, the Centre was trying to portray that India is ruled by more than one national party, the BJP in this case, but it failed to point out that right now it is the single largest party that runs the Indian government (BJP has 303 Lok Sabha seats out of 543). Smaller regional parties only run some state governments, as the BJP also runs many of them.  The statement by the Centre on Friday gave a specific point by point rebuttal on the allegations made by countless human rights reports, international media and the Freedom House report.
On the 2020 Delhi riots In the alleged allegation of discriminatory policies against Muslims in India and the North East Delhi riots, the government claimed that it treated all its citizens with equality and that all laws are applied without discrimination. However, the reality is that the BJP-run Centre has faced criticism from various sides on the CAA, as it does discriminate on the basis of religion.