Modern Diplomacy
Under Narendra Modi’s virulent Hindu nationalist leadership, India has lost another prize: it is no longer designated as ‘Free’ in the latest Freedom House freedom report. Based on civil liberties and political rights, the country rankings are published annually, and India’s new classification is “Partly Free’ like arch rival Pakistan.
Suffering a progressive decline since Modi took over, India barely made the cut-off last year scoring 71. For comparison, a country like Canada scores 98, the UK 93 and the US only 83. Norway, Sweden and Finland are the only three countries with a perfect score of 100.
If China under Xi Jinping is grasping for top economic status, living there is no panacea according to the Freedom House report. It is one of a very few countries given a negative for political rights and only 11 for civil liberties scoring a total of 9. Yes, that’s a single digit and close to countries like Saudi Arabia 7 and Tajikistan 8.