Supporters of the anti-corruption crusader, one of India’s most influential politicians of the past decade, staged a protest on Friday against his arrest, while the opposition party is in a state of opposition to Narendra Modi ahead of national elections. They claim that this is part of a crackdown by the prime minister’s government.
Arvind Kejriwal, New Delhi’s top elected official, was arrested on Thursday night by the Modi government’s Union Enforcement Directorate. The agency accused the party and ministers of accepting $12 million in bribes from a liquor contractor nearly two years ago.
Mr Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party denied the charges and called them fabricated. The party said Kejriwal will continue to serve as Delhi’s chief minister while he fights the charges in court.
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Adding to the party’s problems, authorities also arrested Kejriwal’s deputy Manish Sisodia and AAP MP Sanjay Singh in 2023 as part of the same case.
India’s opposition parties accuse the government of abusing its power to harass and weaken political opponents in order to gain an unfair advantage in opinion polls ahead of general elections starting April 19. They point to a series of raids, arrests and corruption investigations against key opposition figures. Meanwhile, some investigations into former opposition leaders who later defected to Prime Minister Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party were dropped.
“It looks like harassment because only opposition leaders are singled out,” political commentator Neerja Chaudhary said, adding that no investigation was being carried out against anyone in the Bharatiya Janata Party. . “It’s not a level playing field.”
Supporters of the Aam Aadmi Party are detained by police during a protest against the arrest of party leader Arvind Kejriwal in New Delhi, India, March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
The BJP denies using law enforcement agencies to target opposition forces, saying its agencies act independently.
On Friday, hundreds of AAP supporters and some party leaders clashed with police, who took many of them away in buses.
“This is a dictatorship. This is all being done to win the national polls,” AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said, referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mr Kejriwal’s AAP is part of a broad coalition of opposition parties called India and is the main challenger to Prime Minister Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in the April-June elections.
His arrest is another setback for the party and comes after the National Congress party on Thursday accused the government of paralyzing the party by freezing bank accounts over a dispute over taxes. But it was also a rare show of strength for the opposition, which condemned the move as undemocratic and accused Prime Minister Modi’s party of abusing government institutions to undermine them. connected.
“A frightened dictator is trying to create a dead democracy,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) about the arrests.
“India is under an undeclared state of emergency. Today, our democracy is in grave danger,” AAP MP Raghav Chadha said.
Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said Kejriwal’s party was playing the “victim card” and that Kejriwal should resign as chief minister.
The Enforcement Directorate is investigating a number of key opposition leaders, and others are facing various legal sanctions.
In January, the agency arrested Hemant Soren, previously chief minister of eastern Jharkhand state, on suspicion of abetting illegal land sales. Mr Soren’s party denies the accusations.
Mr. Gandhi was found guilty of criminal defamation in 2023 following charges filed by members of Mr. Modi’s party. The two-year prison sentence disqualified him from being a member of parliament for some time pending sentencing in the High Court.
Kejriwal launched AAP in 2012 and campaigned on a promise to rid India’s political system and governance of corruption and inefficiency. The party’s symbol, the broom, and its promise to wipe out corrupt administration resonated with Delhiites.
The party won the Delhi state elections a year later, and Mr. Kejriwal became the chief minister. Kejriwal repeated this feat in 2015 and 2020. Mr Kejriwal’s party also rules northern Punjab.
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Prime Minister Modi had earlier said his party was targeting 370 out of 543 seats in the upcoming national polls. To achieve that, experts say the Bharatiya Janata Party needs to repeat its 2019 election victory, when it won an overwhelming majority of seats in northern India, including all seven seats in Delhi.
Commentator Chaudhary said Kejriwal is the star face of the party. “He is very politically savvy and favors the AAP in Delhi. If he had partnered with the Congress in the elections, it would have been difficult for the BJP to do it again.”
“But the big question is whether Kejriwal’s arrest will energize voters. Previous investigations against opposition leaders have not had the traction they expected,” Chaudhary said. Ta. “But with this arrest, will public opinion start to change?”
