New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) summons to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case has turned into a huge political row between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Kejriwal skipped the ED’s questioning on November 2 and chose to spend the day canvassing in the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.
AAP alleged that the central investigative agency was being used by the BJP to finish off opposition forces who had come together to form the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). AAP leaders have indicated that the summons to Kejriwal, and arrests of deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, and Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain, are a preface to a possible series of such action against top leaders of INDIA bloc parties.
The BJP, on the other hand, has used the opportunity to dismiss such claims by AAP.
Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told the press that the action against AAP leaders, including Kejriwal, is part of a legal process and that the BJP’s political interests have nothing to do with it. He attacked AAP which, he alleged, has been caught in a loop of corrupt dealings while implementing the excise policy. Prasad said that the case exposes the hollowness of AAP’s anti-corruption posturing, while also dismissing the INDIA bloc as an “opportunistic” alliance.
The crux of the saffron party’s attack, while detailing the ED case against AAP leaders in the excise policy case, has been to brand the Kejriwal-led party as a corrupt force.
Sambit Patra, BJP spokesperson, hammered down the point that the ED case has proven that AAP – a party that claimed to be “kattar imaandaar (absolutely honest) – has been exposed as “kattar beyimaan and kattar besharam (absolutely corrupt and shameless)”. Patra defended that the summons were sent to Kejriwal after the ED had taken all available evidence into account.
The BJP’s attack on AAP mostly hinged on the recent Supreme Court order that denied Sisodia bail in the liquor policy case, even as it kept bringing up Kejriwal’s decision to ally with INDIA parties that it had previously called corrupt.
Yet, the ED summons to a sitting chief minister have transformed into a debate around the Union government’s alleged misuse of central agencies for political gains, and has brought back attention to the INDIA coalition ahead of the upcoming assembly polls.
Also read: How the Enforcement Directorate Has Become an Excessive Directorate
The alleged misuse of central agencies
Over the last two days, AAP leaders like Raghav Chadha, Gopal Rai, and Saurabh Bhardwaj have taken turns to liken the ED summons, and the Thursday morning (November 2) raid on Delhi cabinet minister Raaj Kumar Anand in yet another case of alleged money laundering, with an overarching attack on opposition. They claimed that such action against opposition leaders was “vindictive” and reflected the BJP’s nervousness after the INDIA bloc was formed.
Kejriwal shot off a response to the ED, urging the agency to withdraw the summons. He argued that the summons were at the BJP’s behest, and therefore, were “illegal and politically motivated”.
Thereafter, Rai defended him, saying that the ED’s letter didn’t clarify whether it was addressed to the Delhi’s chief minister, or AAP’s national convenor, or Kejriwal as a normal citizen.
Rai said that it was clear that the ED summons were at the BJP’s behest, as even before the ED had responded to Kejriwal’s decision to skip the questioning, the BJP had already responded at the agency’s behest and listed out details regarding why Kejriwal was summoned.
Kejriwal, while canvassing in Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli, said that the summons to him was a threat that he keeps receiving from the BJP’s quarters. He added that AAP has shown that it was possible for a government to develop schools and better healthcare for the poor.
“The Delhi government has shown that it is possible. But the BJP will not do any such thing wherever it is in power nor will it allow anyone to work for the poor,” Kejriwal said.
A rather well-rounded criticism of the ED summons was advanced by Chadha. The Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab said that the summons to Kejriwal was a possible ploy to eventually arrest Kejriwal to wipe off the primary opposition in Delhi and Punjab, so that the BJP has it easy in the Lok Sabha polls next year.
He added that the possible arrest of Kejriwal will be the first in a “series of such arrests” to shut out the top leadership of the INDIA parties.
In a detailed press briefing, he said that after the arrest of Kejriwal, it will be the turn of the Jharkhand chief minister, Hemant Soren; deputy chief minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav; top leaders of the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal; the chief minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan; ministers in the M.K.Stalin-led Tamil Nadu government; and big opposition leaders of the Maha Vikas Agadi, the opposition alliance in Maharashtra. He said the vindictive action by the BJP will also be taken in this order.
He argued that the BJP was anxious after the opposition parties decided to come together despite their differences.
Chadha said that if INDIA becomes successful in fielding one united candidate against the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, the saffron party’s defeat is certain.
“Our sources gave us concrete inputs that the BJP has hatched a plan to arrest all top INDIA bloc leaders before the Lok Sabha polls. The plan is to arrest all top leaders of INDIA parties, with a belief that if top opposition leaders are in prison, there will be no one to steer the opposition campaign. It is a dangerous plan that violates all tenets of democracy,” Chadha said.
He said that such a pattern was there for everyone to see. Almost all top opposition leaders across most states, including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Manish Sisodia and Tejashwi Yadav, were facing different unsubstantiated charges, on which the agencies initiated action only in the run-up to different elections.
“It is clear that the BJP and the Narendra Modi government want to keep the opposition leaders busy in legal hassles than spend time campaigning,” he said, adding that almost 95% of the ED cases in recent years have been against opposition leaders.
The furore over the summons to a sitting chief minister has provoked other opposition parties too in raising their pitch against the BJP, and relate this episode with an overarching attack on INDIA parties. The Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s general secretary Sitaram Yechury brought up the recent notifications that many opposition leaders received from Apple regarding a possible “state-sponsored attack” on their iPhones.
“This anti-INDIAn government needs such surveillance and snoop raj to dig a deeper and bigger hole under Indian democracy, eventually to destroy it,” Yechury said.
Barring the Congress, which is still undecided on whether to treat AAP as an ally or its rival, most other INDIA constituents have protested against the ED move to summon a sitting chief minister.
Given how a majority of INDIA parties have reflexively raised the pitch against BJP on alleged misuse of central investigation agencies over the last few months, the issue is likely to remain a burning matter of discussion in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
