How India’s Position in V-Dem's 'Democracy Report' Shows Flaws in Methodology & Pakistani Link

Sociologist Salvatore Babones has exposed some western ‘Rating Tanks’ anti-India reports, especially Swedish Institute V-Dem, whose ‘Democracy Report 2022’ has ranked India at the 93th place in the Liberal Democracy Index, almost on a par with countries like Nigeria, Papa New Guinea and Guatemala.

India was placed 90th and 97th in 2020 and 2021 under titles: ‘Autocratization Turns Viral’ and ‘Autocratization Surges—Resistance Grows’.

According to fact-checking, investigating platforms such as DisInfoLab, the methodology used by V-Dem is questionable, and the survey does not provide the number or list of experts, nor criteria about how they are selected.

After a deep dive into the list of experts, DisInfoLab found that eminent people from V-Dem, coincidentally, happens to be associated with Pakistan, including the Pakistani Army.

The Country Coordinator from Pakistan, Noor Sitara, has extensive political linkages and has worked with several Pakistani think tanks and institutions – Foreign Services Academy & Information Services run by Pakistani Foreign Ministry.

The information reveals another Pakistani politician and lawyer Chaudhary Aitzaz Ahsan on the advisory of V-Dem. He was the President of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association, and served as Minister of Interior and Law, and Justice under Benazir Bhutto’s regime.

Third key member of V-Dem is its Regional Research Consultant from South Central Asia, Asma Shakir Khawaja, who is the assistant professor at Pakistan-affiliated National Defence University (NDU). She also has contacts with Pakistani Army’s top brass and government officials.

She is also the executive director of the think tank, Centre for International Strategic Studies based in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) run by retired Pakistani diplomats, including former foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan and Pakistan’s permanent representative at the UN, Maleeha Lodhi.

Interestingly, Asma Khwaja, associated with V-Dem, wrote an article in Pakistan newspaper Daily Times using the Swedish institute’s report as basis to target India and called it as electoral autocracy.

According to DisInfo Lab, some foreigners of V-Dem appear to be rather friendly with the Pakistan establishment. In 2019, V-Dem’s director Staffan Lindberg promoted Asma’s book ‘Shaking Hands with Clenched Fists’, which promotes Pakistan’s narrative on Kashmir against India.

Lindberg also visited the National Defence University in Pakistan to attend a seminar and share his research findings at an event where Asma Khwaja was also present. Coincidentally, India’s rankings in V-Dem’s reports began to decline from 2019.

In October this year, Asma attended a lecture seminar on ‘Pak-India Relations and Kashmir Dispute’ with Altaf Wani and Dr Raza Muhammad of Islamabad Policy Research Institute, Jamaat-backed thinktank to study Indian fault lines institutionalized in the 2016 Pakistan Senate Report.

Altaf Wani was one of the guests at Russell Tribunal on Kashmir (RToK) held in Bosnia in December, 2021, as precursor to a larger plot – ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement against India.

Interestingly, Babones was able to expose the flaws in the V-Dem report, however, the “intellectuals” concerned about India never raised the anomaly.

Although the errors in the V-Dem report have been brought to light but the survey has dented India’s reputation, with many media houses publishing the story on the country’s democracy “downgraded to electoral autocracy”.

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