Outgoing chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Friday slammed global democracy indices that have downgraded India over the past decade.
He told an international conference of election management bodies (EMBs) here on Friday: “There have been examples of ratings of democracy index being based on a few media reports and social media conversations. How is that possible? Such ratings become tools for discrediting elections.”
He added: “Let robustness and fairness of electoral exercise not be overshadowed or subsumed in a democracy index. Maybe it is time to have an ‘Election Integrity Index’, either in addition to a democracy index or a separate index within the democracy index with pre-defined weightage. If the so-called democracy indices makers are falling short of this work, it’s perhapstime for EMBs to collectively take up this task in theinterest of voters, elections and democracy.”
India has ranked low in all major international democracy indices — published by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), V-Dem, Economist Intelligence Unit and Freedom House — over the past decade.
CEC Kumar told The Telegraph on Friday: “At the peak of our elections they said India is slipping down…. At that time, attacks on the EC were already happening. This adds fuel. What do they base their decision on: two paper clippings on the appointment of ECs.”
He added: “Whether voters are right, elections are inclusive, how we engage with political parties, how the exercise takes place — all that must go into election integrity (rankings). In the democratic index, which covers human rights, minorities and so on, election integrity (ranking) becomes the casualty. Have a separate index on election integrity.”