'Agencies working as extended wings of ruling dispensation': Oppn parties write to PM condemning Sisodia's arrest

Suggesting that India has transitioned into an autocracy, eight Opposition parties on Sunday found fault with the arrest of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, saying the "misuse" of central agencies and Constitutional offices like that of Governor to settle scores outside electoral battlefield is "strongly condemnable".

Nine leaders from eight parties -- BRS, Trinamool Congress, AAP, RJD, National Conference, NCP, Shiv Sena (Thackeray) and Samajwadi Party -- shot off a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in support of Sisodia and alleged that investigation agencies were "interestingly going slow" on Opposition politicians who joined the BJP while citing the cases against Himanta Biswas Sarma, Suvendu Adhikari, Mukul Roy and Narayan Rane.

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Alleging that the agencies have "priorities misplaced", the leaders referred to the Adani Group issue without naming it and said SBI and LIC have reportedly lost over Rs 78,000 crore in market capitalisation of their shares due to exposure to a certain firm. They asked why have the central agencies not been pressed into service to investigate the firm's financial irregularities despite the public money at stake?

Those who signed the letters were Chief Ministers K Chandrasekhar Rao (Telangana, BRS), Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal, Trinamool), Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi, AAP) and Bhagwant Mann (Punjab, AAP), Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), NCP chief Sharad Pawar, National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, Shiv Sena (Thackeray's) Uddhav Thackeray and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.

Interestingly, parties like CPI(M) and CPI, which attended public rallies called by BRS did not sign the letter, which was initiated by the BRS. Congress was also not part of this exercise with which BRS has a running feud.

"We hope you would agree that India is still a democratic country. The blatant misuse of central agencies against the members of the opposition appears to suggest that we have transitioned from being a democracy to an autocracy," they said while describing Sisodia's arrest as "outrightly baseless and smack of a political conspiracy".

The leaders said the arrest of Sisodia, who is "recognised globally for transforming Delhi's school education" would be cited worldwide as an example of a political witch-hunt and "further confirm what the world was only suspecting - that India's democratic values stand threatened under an authoritarian BJP regime.

Since 2014, they alleged that there has been a "marked rise in the number of raids conducted, cases lodged against and arrest of Opposition leaders" and these actions have often sparked suspicion that they were working as extended wings of the ruling dispensation at the Centre.

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Citing the actions against leaders like Lalu Prasad, Sanjay Raut, Azam Khan, Nawab Malik, Anil Deshmukh and Abhishek Banerjee among others, the leaders said in many cases, the timings of the cases lodged or arrests made have coincided with elections making it abundantly clear that they were politically motivated.

"The manner in which prominent members of the opposition have been targeted lends credence to the allegation that your government is using investigating agencies to target or eliminate the opposition. The list of the agencies your government has been accused of using against the opposition isn’t limited to the Enforcement Directorate," it said.

The letter also referred to "another front on which a war is being waged" against federalism, as it pointed towards the confrontation with Governors in Opposition-ruled states.

"The offices of the Governors across the country are acting in violation of the constitutional provisions and frequently hindering the governance of the state. They are wilfully undermining democratically elected state governments and choosing instead to obstruct governance as per their whims and fancies," the leaders said.

"Be it the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Punjab, Telangana or the Lt Governor of Delhi – the Governors have become the face of the widening rift between the Centre and states run by the non-BJP governments and threaten the spirit of cooperative federalism, which the states continue to nurture in spite of a lack of expression by the Centre. As a result, the people of our country have now begun to question the role of the Governors in Indian democracy," they warned.