Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Report 2024: A Political Hatchet Job in the Name of Research

Another year, another report, yet the same story! The V-Dem Institute, based in Sweden, has released its 2024 Democracy Report, once again bringing to the forefront its biases against India and the Global South. The report appears to be a political hatchet job, serving as a mouthpiece for vested interests. With the increasing accessibility of the internet and the public’s reliance on digital platforms for news, institutes like V-Dem have found a platform to showcase their supposed virtues without any cost or consequence. Through flashy infographics and diagrams, yet with minimal substance, these reports masquerade as fair and virtuous, akin to high priests from medieval times passing judgment without any legitimate basis or fairness. There is no transparency regarding whose opinions were considered, who these 25 intellectuals are, or the methodology of this purposive, biased, so-called sample or sham opinion of a few.