Let us discuss freedom and democracy today, and in this regard, we should talk about Freedom House that is one of US' oldest NGOs dating back 81 years. This NGO gives the freedom and democracy index of nations.
And what's to be noted here is that these NGOs tell other countries in the world every year how much freedom the people have and the amount of democracy in the system is low or high. And this time the NGO has also put the shutter of its shop up to sell the Ratings.
The NGO has released ratings of 210 countries in the world for the year 2020. India has been dropped from a list of “free” countries. Freedom House has placed India in the “partly free” category in its latest report that carries the observation that the free world had shrunk as a result and that the country was being driven towards “authoritarianism”.
If you look at the ratings for the countries, you will see that most countries have been downgraded.
This NGO named Freedom House creates Global Freedom Index based on 25 points -- issue of political freedom, fundamental rights of citizens, independent media, right to protest, freedom of work and free elections to foreign NGOs. And the important thing is that this time Freedom House has given India a low rating on all these parameters.
As per this report, India has come down five places in the Global Freedom Index of 210 countries from 83 to 88.
For India's freedom of political rights, the NGO has given 34 points out of 40 and has given 33 points out of 60 in terms of independent rights of citizens.
The NGO, which gave India 67 points out of 100, has given 83 points out of 100 to the US and has placed it in the category of countries where there is political freedom and citizens also have full freedom. And there is a big reason behind this NGO doing so and that it gets 80 per cent funding from the US. That is, if this NGO gets Rs 100, Rs 80 comes from the US government.
When you look at the report released by this NGO, you will feel that democracy has ended in most countries of the world, including India, and the freedom of citizens has been limited and a handful of countries can help you to save the world from this crisis. These countries are America, Canada and Europe nations. That is, by reading this report, you can easily fill up and you may find it possible to see shortcomings in your country.
Let us understand how these ratings are used:
1) Freedom House's Ratings are most used by US media institutions and parliamentarians.
2) The US government, under these ratings, decides which countries in the world will be given financial assistance. Countries that are at the top of this list get a lot of money and those who have low rankings, get less or no funds.
3) World Bank prepares a list of Worldwide Governance Indicators based on this rating and this list is based on the same ratings of Freedom House. That means the number of countries that will help the World Bank also depends largely on this report.
4) This kind of rating agency is also used by the US to pursue its foreign policy. That is, the rating of the countries that they clash with is reduced and the countries that support it are given the top of the list.
In one of Cambridge University's studies, the Ratings of Freedom House released from 1972 to 2010 show countries with which Americans have ideological friendships are given good ratings and those that different constitutional values, get less rating. It was also learnt that the countries with which the United States could not balance their foreign policy, never find a place in such index.