New Delhi: The Congress party on Thursday slammed the BJP over India's slip in the global Democracy Index 2019, alleging that for BJP dispensation their political stubbornness is paramount than democracy.
India slipped 10 places to the 51st position in the ranking, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit, which cited "erosion of civil liberties" in the country as the primary cause for the downtrend.
Read: India falls to 51st position in EIU's Democracy Index
"When you add up CAA, NRC, NPR and the six new questions in the NPR, we have a cocktail of distrust and suspicion," Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.
"The diminishing democracy of our country is certainly because of four reasons- first, the misuse of governmental power and agencies. Second, the intolerance which can be seen through the use of Sec 144 during protests by the students. Third, is the palpable increase in vendetta, which is completely antithetical to the idea of India. Fourth is the feeling that what is uniform is right," Singhvi said.
He further added, "It is not people, who should be afraid of the government but the government should be afraid of the people."
India's overall score fell from 7.23 in 2018 to 6.90 in the index that provides a snapshot of the current state of democracy worldwide for 165 independent states and two territories.
