Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers stage a protest against the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in front of the BJP office, in Gurugram.
Credit: PTI Photo
There could be a debate on whether the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal would weaken the Opposition by depriving it of campaigning by a leader with mass appeal or strengthen it by instilling among the parties a higher sense of unity and purpose. But the arrest was never meant to boost the Opposition but to cast a shadow on the image of a popular leader and keep him off the campaign. It was the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that arrested Kejriwal but it cannot be denied that the government’s hands were behind the action. The ED has been used for attacks on the Opposition in the past also. Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren was arrested in January. There have been raids and other actions not only by the ED but by other central agencies, too. These cannot be considered as the law taking its normal course but as the law being put to election use by the government.
The Congress party has said that the government is trying to financially choke it. Eight of its 11 accounts at four banks have been frozen on charges of violation of Income Tax rules. The party has said that it has no funds for campaign and even for train fare for its leaders. That amounts to denying the main opposition party its ability to campaign. Rules are again being quoted to justify the action against the Congress but it would be seen as a targeted action with an electoral intent against the party. The attempt to destabilise the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh is also part of a strategy to diminish the Opposition before the elections. There is large-scale poaching of leaders from other parties which is intended to weaken the parties to create the impression among the people that all opposition parties are in decline.
If the targeted actions by the investigating agencies are normal, the question would be why they are being taken now, so close to the election. There is apprehension that more such actions may be in the offing against parties and their leaders. An election which is conducted after crippling the opposition parties would be a farcical exercise. Dictators and authoritarian governments hold such elections and claim great victories, not great democracies. India’s electoral system has had blemishes and shortcomings but elections have largely been free and fair. Free and fair elections are the life breath of democracy. If the Opposition is deliberately put under pressure, disabled and immobilised and is driven away from the field by throwing its leaders in jail, that is a form of rigging the elections. Such an election has no credibility. India should not move in that direction.