India’s Democracy Ranking Under the Modi Government: Sonia Gandhi’s Concerns, Tested Against the Data
Politics & Policy · Analysis · Updated November 10, 2026
Sonia Gandhi raises concerns over India's democracy under Modi government
Quick summary
Sonia Gandhi’s new memoir says India has fallen down the world’s democracy tables since 2014.
V-Dem classifies India as an electoral autocracy, Freedom House rates it Partly Free, and the EIU calls it a flawed democracy.
The BJP and the government dispute both the messenger and the methodology.
When a former Congress president says her country has slipped down the world’s democracy tables, the claim lands as politics first and analysis second. Sonia Gandhi’s new memoir has revived the argument over whether India’s democratic standing has fallen since 2014. Her critics in the ruling BJP say she is the wrong messenger. This article sets out what she said, what the three major indices show, and how the government and its supporters respond. It also covers where the evidence is solid and where it is contested.
What Sonia Gandhi Said
Gandhi’s 526-page memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, says India has fallen far down the list of nations regarded as liberal democracies over the past decade, and that India’s rise in social, economic and political tables under Manmohan Singh has been reversed on key indicators, according to PTI’s report on the book.
The book is also a broader indictment. She alleges that the ruling party has captured government agencies to intimidate opponents, that mainstream TV has become partisan, and that space for public protest has been curtailed. She also points out that Narendra Modi has not held a press conference in his 12 years in office.
Ahead of the launch, she told interviewers that “great damage” had been done to India’s democratic fabric and institutions over 12 years, and that repairing it would take time even after the Modi government leaves. She also said Congress and other opposition parties have not had a level playing field under this government. Coverage of the interviews also carried a sharper allegation about stolen elections, reported amid the controversy over electoral roll revisions. These are her allegations. The rankings below do not test most of them directly.
India Parliament and liberal democracy ranking debate
What the Major Democracy Indices Show
Gandhi’s central claim, that India has fallen in the rankings, can be checked against three widely cited indices. Each measures something different.
V-Dem Institute (University of Gothenburg)
V-Dem is the harshest of the three. In its 2026 report, India remains classified as an “electoral autocracy” and slipped five places on the Liberal Democracy Index. V-Dem places India’s entry into that category in 2017. India ranked 106th of 179 countries on the Electoral Democracy Index with a score of 0.38, and 105th on the Liberal Democracy Index with a score of 0.26. Congress leader P. Chidambaram noted that the score is the lowest since 1975.
V-Dem’s findings are not India-specific. The same report says the United States under Donald Trump no longer qualifies as a liberal democracy, for the first time in 50 years.
Freedom House
Freedom House is more moderate. Its 2026 report rates India “Partly Free” with 62 out of 100, down from 63 the year before, with 31 of 40 for political rights and 31 of 60 for civil liberties. India was downgraded to “Partly Free” in its 2021 report.
The report is not uniformly negative. Freedom House scored the most recent national elections full marks on the question of free and fair executive elections, noting only some reported campaign-rule violations. Its internet-freedom assessment is less positive: India scores 50 out of 100, with the 2026 report citing a steady expansion of the legal framework for online censorship.
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
The EIU keeps India in the “flawed democracy” category, alongside many Western democracies. Its trend is still downward. The 2025 index put India at 47th, with a score that fell to 6.96, and India’s fall of 0.33 points was among the largest deteriorations worldwide that year.
The longer view supports Gandhi’s point about direction. In 2021 the EIU said India’s score fell from a peak of 7.92 in 2014 to 6.61 in 2020, and its rank slipped from 27th to 53rd. Ranks and scores have moved since then, but the 2014 starting point remains well above today’s figures.
Democracy, press freedom and justice in India editorial illustration
How the BJP and the Government Respond
Party leaders
BJP leaders answered Gandhi within hours, mostly by attacking the messenger. Union Minister Giriraj Singh told her to focus on Congress’s electoral setbacks instead of criticizing the government. Minister Ramdas Athawale countered with the government’s record on economic growth, global standing, exports and jobs. BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal said Congress was in no position to lecture others, accusing it of undermining democratic institutions while in power.
Those responses mostly do not engage with the index data. They are political rebuttals. The Emergency is the strongest point in Congress’s record, and Gandhi’s own memoir acknowledges the 21 months of Emergency rule as a departure from democratic tradition.
The government’s position on the rankings
Delhi has long disputed the validity of these indices. In 2021, the government rejected Freedom House’s downgrade as “misleading, incorrect and misplaced.” External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar attacked the V-Dem and Freedom House reports sharply and later called such rankings hypocrisy from Western institutions. The government also considered building its own measure: an internal Ministry of External Affairs note suggested India define its own democracy parameters to counter reports like V-Dem’s.
Reading the Rankings Critically
Three points are worth keeping in mind.
The indices disagree about how bad things are. V-Dem’s “electoral autocracy” label is a far stronger claim than the EIU’s “flawed democracy” or Freedom House’s “Partly Free.” Gandhi’s phrase “fallen way down” fits V-Dem well. It fits the EIU and Freedom House as a downward trend rather than a collapse.
Methodology is contested. Critics on the Indian right argue the V-Dem approach is skewed. One commentary in Open magazine says the institute labels India an electoral autocracy every March, and argues that heavy weighting of large countries like India and the US makes global democratic decline look steeper. Supporters of the indices respond that they rely on expert panels and public datasets that anyone can test. Both positions are fair to present.
Elections and institutions are different questions. Even critical indices separate whether votes are counted fairly from whether the surrounding environment is free. Freedom House’s full marks on election fairness sit alongside its concerns over civil liberties. Gandhi’s strongest claims concern the environment around the vote: media, protest, investigative agencies. The rankings speak to those claims better than to her election-theft allegation.
Why It Matters Beyond India
For international readers, India’s rankings matter for practical reasons. The country is the world’s most populous democracy and a key economic and strategic partner for the US and UK. Index scores feed into investor risk assessments, diplomatic language and academic work. The debate also shows how contested “democracy” measurement has become. As V-Dem’s treatment of the US shows, no large democracy is exempt from scrutiny.
Conclusion
Sonia Gandhi’s concerns line up with a real downward trend in major international rankings: V-Dem’s electoral autocracy label, Freedom House’s Partly Free status and a falling EIU score. The evidence is strongest on press freedom, civil liberties and institutional independence. It is weaker on direct proof that elections themselves are rigged. The BJP’s replies emphasize economic achievement and Congress’s own history, and the government argues that Western-led indices are biased. Neither side’s case settles the matter. Readers get the clearest picture by reading the underlying reports and comparing each index’s method with the claims made about it.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What did Sonia Gandhi say about India’s democracy ranking?
In her memoir she says India has fallen far down the list of liberal democracies over the past decade, and that the BJP has systematically dismantled democratic institutions.
2. Is India still a democracy according to these indices?
It depends on the index. The EIU rates India a flawed democracy. Freedom House rates it Partly Free. V-Dem classifies it as an electoral autocracy.
3. How has the BJP responded?
BJP leaders said Gandhi should reflect on Congress’s decline and record rather than lecture on democracy. One minister cited economic growth and jobs.
4. Does the Indian government accept these rankings?
No. It called Freedom House’s 2021 downgrade misleading, incorrect and misplaced.
5. Are the rankings reliable?
They are useful but imperfect. They rely on expert judgments and different definitions of democracy, and critics dispute their weighting. The most reliable approach is to compare several indices and read their methodologies.
Sources
OrissaPOST/PTI: Sonia Gandhi accuses Modi government of undermining India’s democratic institutions
Business Standard: “Great damage” done to India’s democracy under Modi govt
Hindustan Times: India slips to 53rd in EIU Democracy Index (2021)
Scroll: Foreign minister rejects reports questioning democracy in India
