Arvind Kejriwal, a revenue officer of the Government of India turned Right to Information activist, who metamorphosed into a firebrand political leader and later Delhi’s chief minister, will go down in independent India’s history as the first incumbent chief minister to be arrested. Given his other encomiums, Kejriwal might even welcome this as an “honour”. In his first reaction after he was arrested late Thursday night, he emphasised that his “life was dedicated to the nation”. As his bail application is decided upon and the Enforcement Directorate’s case of corruption against him unfolds, Kejriwal will have plenty of opportunities to cement his stature as a political leader with gravitas standing up to the juggernaut of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the towering Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Kejriwal is the third leader to be arrested in the “liquor scam” in which his party, Aam Aadmi Party, allegedly favoured a “south group” and private manufacturers in return for funds used in elections; his deputy Manish Sisodia and party leader Sanjay Singh as well as K Kavitha, leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), were earlier arrested in the same case. They have all denied the allegations. Irrespective of how Kejriwal uses the occasion to turn himself into a hero standing up to the brute force of power, it is worth noting that the ED and other central agencies have, in the shadow of corruption allegations, launched a witch hunt against opposition leaders and critics. Congress party’s Hemant Soren, chief minister of Jharkhand, was arrested in January on charges of money laundering. The Congress party has had its bank accounts frozen in a 30-year-old case inhibiting it from making electoral expenses. Several non-BJP leaders, critics, journalists have been raided, questioned, had cases filed against them, or incarcerated till they joined the ruling party.
The intent of the central agencies, who unfortunately seem to have locked step with the ruling party, appears to be to keep the Opposition on a leash in the run-up to the general elections. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi scathingly called PM Modi a “scared dictator” who wants to create “a dead democracy”. It is evident to even common citizens, except those supporting the PM and his party, that the Modi government has turned into an authoritarian and arrogant one, diminishing the level playing field for its political and ideological opponents. Kejriwal’s arrest is a piece of this design.
