Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP P Chidambaram has raised concerns over India’s position on the Electoral Democracy Index, citing the country’s 106th rank among 179 nations in the latest assessment by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute.
Chidambaram highlighted the ranking in a post on X, pointing to what he described as India’s lowest democracy index score since 1975. The V-Dem Democracy Report 2026 assigns India a score of 0.38 on the Electoral Democracy Index for 2025, placing it 106th globally.
Chidambaram highlights V-Dem assessment
Sharing the findings, Chidambaram said the latest figures required no further comment, drawing attention to both India's ranking and its historical score.
The Congress leader's remarks come amid an ongoing political debate over the condition of democratic institutions, electoral processes, freedom of expression and political competition in India.
The V-Dem assessment is an international academic measurement of democracy and is separate from India's official electoral institutions. Its Electoral Democracy Index measures the extent to which political leaders are elected through free and fair elections while also considering freedoms of association and expression. (Our World in Data)
India ranked 106th among 179 countries
According to the 2026 V-Dem assessment, India stood at 106th position out of 179 countries on the Electoral Democracy Index, with a score of 0.38.
The report also placed India at 105th on the Liberal Democracy Index, with a score of 0.26. V-Dem categorised India as an electoral autocracy in its classification of political regimes.
V-Dem's framework evaluates democracy through several dimensions, including electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative and egalitarian principles. The institute says its methodology goes beyond simply examining whether elections are held and uses a large set of indicators to assess different aspects of democratic governance.
Report examines democratic conditions
The V-Dem Democracy Report 2026, titled Unraveling The Democratic Era?, is produced by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
The institute's assessment tracks changes in democratic conditions across countries and uses expert-coded data to construct its various democracy indices. Its Electoral Democracy Index specifically focuses on the extent to which citizens can choose political leaders through competitive elections and whether key freedoms associated with electoral democracy are protected.
India classified as electoral autocracy
The V-Dem report's classification of India as an electoral autocracy has previously been a point of political debate. The latest assessment continues that classification while placing India 106th on the Electoral Democracy Index.
The report also points to concerns over freedom of expression, media independence, civil society and political competition as factors associated with India's democratic trajectory. These are findings of V-Dem's assessment and should be distinguished from the positions of Indian political parties on the subject.
Congress has repeatedly raised democracy concerns
Chidambaram's comments come against the backdrop of repeated criticism by Congress leaders over what they describe as a decline in democratic institutions and electoral safeguards.
The opposition party has also raised concerns about electoral processes and the functioning of institutions, while the government and its supporters have rejected allegations of democratic decline.
The latest V-Dem ranking is therefore likely to become another point of political debate, with the opposition using the international assessment to question the state of Indian democracy.
What the ranking measures
The Electoral Democracy Index is scored on a scale from 0 to 1, with higher values indicating a greater degree of electoral democracy. V-Dem defines the measure in terms of free and fair elections, comprehensive suffrage and freedoms of association and expression.
The ranking should therefore be read as an assessment produced under V-Dem's methodology rather than as an official determination of the quality or legitimacy of India's elections. India's 106th position and the 0.38 score are the specific figures highlighted by Chidambaram in his criticism of the country's democratic trajectory.
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