India ranked 106th on V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, lowest since 1975, says Chidambaram

Chidambaram flags India's rank

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP P. Chidambaram on Tuesday flagged India's 106th position among 179 countries on the Electoral Democracy Index published by the V-Dem Institute, saying the score was the lowest since 1975.

"Without comment: India ranks 106th among 179 countries on the Electoral Democracy Index. V-Dem's democracy index score for India is at its lowest since 1975," Chidambaram posted on X.

V-Dem rankings and categorisation

According to both ANI and Times Now, V-Dem assigned India a score of 0.38 for 2025 on the Electoral Democracy Index, placing it 106th globally. On the Liberal Democracy Index, India ranked 105th with a score of 0.26.

The V-Dem Institute, based at the Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg and led by Associate Professor Steven Wilson, categorised India as an electoral autocracy. As reported by both outlets, India was placed alongside Kazakhstan and Pakistan in this category, while Afghanistan and Turkmenistan were classified as closed autocracies—a classification that appeared in ANI's report.

V-Dem uses Population-Weighted Measures to assess the level of democracy experienced statistically by the average person worldwide. Its country averages assign equal weight to democratic changes in smaller nations such as the Seychelles and Timor-Leste as in larger countries like India and the United States, as explained in both reports.

In South and Central Asia, V-Dem found that only 2 per cent of people live under electoral democracy, mainly in Nepal and Sri Lanka. A very small share resides in "grey zone" democracies such as Bhutan, Mongolia and the Maldives, according to the reports.

Reasons for the decline

ANI's report detailed V-Dem's assessments regarding India. The institute argued for a slow autocratization in India since 2009 and claimed a "systematic dismantling of democratic institutions." It highlighted deteriorations in freedom of expression and independence of the media, harassment of journalists critical of the government, and attacks on civil society and the opposition as the reasons behind the decline.

Political context

Times Now noted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not yet responded to the report. ANI's report mentioned that Congress has regularly cornered the government on the issue, with the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, claiming "vote chori" on several occasions.