Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi and leader of the Aam Aadmi party (AAP), has been apprehended in connection to a corruption inquiry, which his party believes is a scheme by Narendra Modi’s administration to weaken the opposition ahead of the upcoming elections. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), a government-run investigative unit, took Kejriwal into custody at his residence, marking the first time in India’s independent history that a serving Chief Minister has been taken into custody.
The allegations against Kejriwal and other front-ranking members of AAP in Delhi are related to impropriety and accepting illegal payments from an alcohol licensing policy, as claimed by the ED. Atishi Singh, an AAP minister in the Delhi government, labelled Kejriwal’s arrest a scheme masterminded by the BJP and Prime Minister Modi.
According to Singh, the arrest of Kejriwal does not diminish his influence or his ideas. With India’s elections less than a month away, Modi and his BJP administration are aiming to be re-elected for a third term. In contrast to larger opposition parties, the AAP, sprung from an anti-corruption campaign and has captured state elections in the capital and in Punjab recently.
Being an irritant to the Modi administration, Kejriwal has publicly announced his plans to expand the AAP into a national party in order to counter the influence of the BJP. The arrest sparked outrage among leading opposition parties, including Rahul Gandhi, the former Congress party leader who suggested that a fearful dictator is attempting to subdue a live democracy. It was further emphasised by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor that this was an attempt to manipulate Indian democracy during the general elections.
Earlier this year, Arvind Kejriwal found himself accused of being complicit in the notorious Delhi alcohol scandal, facing specific allegations of money laundering. In the past few weeks, he has persistently refused to respond to several summonses for interrogation, maintaining that the investigation was politicised and pushed forward by the Enforcement Directorate under instructions from the BJP.
Manish Sisodia, who acted as deputy to Mr Kejriwal in the Delhi AAP governance, has remained incarcerated for over one year on similar charges, while several others have been taken into custody recently. On Thursday evening, officers showed up at Kejriwal’s residence in Delhi holding a warrant, conducted a search before detaining him and escorting him to the ED headquarters.
Despite this, the party has stood firm on its decision that Mr Kejriwal will not step down from his chief minister position and will instead continue his duties from incarceration. The party, on this matter, released a statement on X, which read: “The moment has arrived for a complete revolution. The despotic government that is squashing the nation must now be overthrown”. The party has also taken immediate action towards challenging Kejriwal’s arrest through the supreme court.
Even as this is happening, the BJP is currently under fire for allegedly intensifying its clampdown on political rivals and engineering an unfair advantage with the upcoming elections in sight. On the aforementioned Thursday, the Congress party asserted that the BJP administration had blocked its bank accounts in a tax-based case, thus hindering its capacity to campaign.
Mr Gandhi added: “We’re financially crippled and incapable of supporting our candidates, let alone launch a successful campaign for the elections. Thus the claim that India is a democratic nation falls flat. Indeed, there is no democracy in India at present.” Reported by Guardian.