Kejriwal arrested: Frightened dictator, says Rahul Gandhi; Opposition loses ‘national campaign voice’

Hitting out at Modi, Rahul said a “scared dictator” is sounding the death knell of democracy. Leaders of the Delhi Congress, led by its chief Arvinder Singh Lovely and AAP baiter Sandeep Dikshit, reached Kejriwal’s residence in a show of support.

“While capturing all the institutions including the media, breaking up parties, extorting money from companies, freezing the account of the main opposition party was not enough for the ‘asuri shakti’ now the arrest of the elected Chief Ministers has also become a common thing. INDIA will give a befitting reply to this,” Rahul said.

Delhi Minister Atishi Singh outside the residence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after an ED team arrived there, shortly after the high court refused to grant Kejriwal protection from coercive action in an excise policy-linked money laundering case, in New Delhi, Thursday, March 21, 2024.

Kharge said “the arrogant BJP, which makes false claims of victory every day, is trying to weaken the opposition by illegal means before the elections. If there was real confidence of victory then the accounts of the main opposition party, Congress Party, would not have been frozen by misusing the constitutional institutions. Leaders of opposition parties are not targeted right before the elections. The truth is that BJP is scared of the upcoming election results and in panic is creating all kinds of problems for the opposition.”

That the Lok Sabha elections are knocking on the door is the key imperative but the larger message that the Opposition parties want to convey, many of its leaders said, is that the Modi government is hellbent on squeezing its political rivals to ensure an “Opposition-free” campaign. And Kejriwal’s arrest was meant to “silence his voice during the campaign.”

Earlier in the day, the top three of the Congress — Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul — had come out accusing the government of crippling it financially by freezing its bank accounts.

The refrain of the opposition leaders was that the BJP, despite its claim of securing a third term with an improved tally, is unsure of its victory and hence is targeting the Opposition. Kejriwal, after all, is not Hemant Soren or BRS leader K Kavitha or for that matter Manish Sisodia or Sanjay Singh. The opposition is hoping that his arrest in the excise policy scam, days after the election schedule was announced, sends a signal to the electorate of the Centre’s strong-arm politics.

Emerging on the political scene as an anti-graft crusader a little over a decade ago, labelling almost every established political party and many of its well0-entrenched leaders as corrupt, Kejriwal, then the quintessential outsider, is now one of the lynchpins of the anti-BJP opposition bloc, having forged close relationships with many of its leading lights and alliances with parties including the Congress.

His arrest will also effectively keep him out of the Lok Sabha election campaign trial, robbing the opposition of a potent national voice, who takes on the BJP aggressively on its nationalism pitch — his framing the CAA, for instance, as hurting young citizens – along with his school-mohalla clinic governance pitch.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called Kejriwal’s arrest “outright vicious and part of a callous plot to silence all opposition voices just ahead of the general elections.” He said the move “exposes the cowardice of those who fear democratic process and calls for collective action to resist abuse of power.”

His Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin called the BJP government fascist. “Not a single BJP leader faces scrutiny or arrest, laying bare their abuse of power and the decay of democracy. The relentless persecution of opposition leaders by the BJP Govt smacks of a desperate witch-hunt. This tyranny ignites public fury, unmasking BJP’s true colours. But their futile arrests only fuel our resolve, fortifying the INDIA alliance’s march to victory. BJP, brace for the people’s wrath,” Stalin said.

The Trinamool Congress, NCP, Samajwadi Party and the Left, too, slammed the arrest.

“We vehemently condemn the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, an elected CM, especially when EC is in charge & MCC is in place. Earlier his administrative powers were snatched through an illegal ordinance. How can we expect fair elections in India if sitting CMs & prominent opposition leaders are arrested weeks before polls? If SC & ECI fail to act now, who will stand with people against BJP’s oppressive politics in future?” said senior TMC leader Derek O’Brien.

He said if the “chiefs of political parties, Chief Ministers, political leaders, election agents, workers, every opponent — being harassed & arrested like this…what will be the fate of our precious democracy.”

Akhilesh Yadav was scathing. “Those who are themselves imprisoned in the fear of defeat…What will ‘they’ do by imprisoning someone else? The BJP knows that it will not come to power again. Due to this fear, it wants to remove the opposition leaders from the public by any means at the time of elections. Arrest is just an excuse. This arrest will give birth to a new people’s revolution,” Yadav said.

Condemning what he called “vindictive misuse of Central agencies to target the opposition, especially as general elections loom,” NCP chief Sharad Pawar said the “arrest showcases the depth to which BJP will stoop for power.” The INDIA alliance, he said, stands united against this unconstitutional action. CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury claimed that BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are in “panic” over their impending rejection by people in the Lok Sabha polls.

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti said Kejriwal’s arrest reeks of political vendetta and growing authoritarianism. “The arbitrary arrest of yet another CM by ED reeks of political vendetta and growing authoritarianism,” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said.