Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP P Chidambaram on Tuesday highlighted India's 106th rank among 179 countries on the Electoral Democracy Index, citing the latest assessment by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute.Chidambaram said the score was India's lowest since 1975. In a post on X, he wrote that India ranked 106th on the index and that V-Dem's democracy score for the country was at its lowest level since 1975.The V-Dem Democracy Report 2026 gives India an Electoral Democracy Index (EDI) score of 0.38 for 2025, placing it 106th. The report also places India at 105th on its Liberal Democracy Index, with a score of 0.26.
What does V-Dem's Electoral Democracy Index measure?
The Electoral Democracy Index is one of V-Dem's core measures of democracy. According to the institute, it looks beyond the existence of elections and considers whether elections are free, fair and recurring, whether elected officials exercise political power, and whether citizens have universal suffrage.It also considers the political environment around elections, including freedoms of expression, media, association, political parties and candidates.V-Dem's 2026 report is based on its dataset covering 202 countries and territories and draws on assessments from thousands of scholars and country experts. The institute says its dataset contains more than 32 million data points and measures more than 600 attributes of democracy.
India classified as an 'electoral autocracy'
The report classifies India as an electoral autocracy. It says the country has been undergoing what it describes as slow but systematic autocratisation since 2009 and identifies concerns involving freedom of expression, media independence, civil society and the opposition.V-Dem also identifies India as one of four autocratising countries in South and Central Asia, alongside Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan. Sri Lanka is identified as the region's only democratising country in the report.These are V-Dem's assessments, rather than an official classification by the Indian government or an international electoral authority.
India's position across V-Dem's democracy indices
The 2026 report provides scores for several dimensions of democracy. India's rankings are:
- Electoral Democracy Index: 106th, score 0.38
- Liberal Democracy Index: 105th, score 0.26
- Liberal Component Index: 99th, score 0.58
- Egalitarian Component Index: 138th, score 0.41
- Participatory Component Index: 83rd, score 0.54
- Deliberative Component Index: 100th, score 0.57
The report marks India's scores on both the Electoral Democracy Index and Liberal Democracy Index as having declined substantially and significantly over the past decade.
Political debate over India's democracy
Chidambaram's post comes amid a wider political debate between the Congress and the BJP-led government over democratic institutions, elections and the functioning of India's political system.Congress leaders, including Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, have repeatedly raised allegations concerning the electoral process, including his "vote chori" claim. The government and BJP have rejected such political attacks.Chidambaram's latest intervention specifically draws attention to the V-Dem assessment, rather than presenting the index ranking as an independently established fact about the quality of India's democracy.
What the 106th rank means
The ranking should also be read in the context of how V-Dem constructs its index. The EDI is scored on a 0-to-1 scale, with higher scores representing stronger performance according to the index's methodology.V-Dem's report says electoral democracy is central to its broader understanding of democracy, while its Liberal Democracy Index additionally incorporates checks and balances, civil liberties, rule of law and constraints on executive power.The latest figures therefore provide a measure of India's standing under V-Dem's methodology. They do not constitute an official verdict on India's electoral system.
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