US Australian embassy posts map showing India as only ‘partly free’

The United States Embassy in Australia on Tuesday posted a map on X showing India as being “partly free”.

The map was based on the annual report of Freedom House, a US-based non-profit organisation funded by the American government.

The organisation had classified India as a “partly free” country for the sixth consecutive year in its annual Freedom in the World report.

The report said that “while India is a multiparty democracy, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has presided over discriminatory policies and a rise in persecution affecting Muslims”.

It added that the “harassment of journalists, nongovernmental organizations, and other government critics has increased significantly under Modi” .

“The BJP has increasingly used government institutions to target political opponents. Muslims, scheduled castes (Dalits), and scheduled tribes (Adivasis) remain economically and socially marginalised,” it said.

The 2026 report assessed political rights and civil liberties in 195 countries and 13 territories on a 100-point scale.

India scored 62 out of 100, a one-point decline from its score of 63 in the previous report. The country was classified as “Free” until 2020, before being downgraded to “Partly Free” in 2021.

Edited by Sneha.
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