Arvind Kejriwal: India opposition calls arrest ‘decay of democracy’

The imprisonment of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been vehemently condemned by Indian opposition officials.

In connection with fraud allegations involving the state’s liquor sales policies, Mr. Kejriwal, the AAP head, was detained on Thursday.

In the Supreme Court, Mr. Kejriwal has contested his imprisonment and denied any wrongdoing.

Criticism figures claim that his incarceration was motivated by politics.

However, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has refuted the claim and claimed that it is simply attempting to combat fraud.

Mr Kejriwal’s imprisonment by a financial crimes firm comes as a punch to the criticism only weeks before India’s general votes. AAP is a member of the 27-party INDIA empire that seeks to issue the BJP.

Alluding to Mr Modi, Rahul Gandhi of the major opposition Congress party wrote on X, previously Online, on Thursday night:” A frightened tyrant wants to create a useless democracy”.

The arrest of elected Chief Ministers has become a regular practice, Mr. Gandhi wrote.

According to Sharad Pawar, the Nationalist Congress Party ( Sharadchandra Pawar ), Mr. Kejriwal’s arrest highlights the “depth to which BJP will stoop for power”

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said Mr Kejriwal’s arrest would “give birth to a new people’s revolution”.

He posted on X on the fact that “BJP knows that it will not come to power again, and it wants to remove opposition leaders from the public by any means at the time of elections,” adding that arrest is just an excuse.

Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister of Kerala, said Mr Kejriwal’s arrest “outright vicious and part of a callous plot to silence all opposition voices just ahead of the general elections”.

His counterpart in Tamil Nadu, M K Stalin, said:” Not a single BJP leader faces scrutiny or arrest, laying bare their abuse of power and the decay of democracy”.

The BJP government’s continued persecution of opposition leaders resembles a witch hunt. This tyranny ignites public fury, unmasking BJP’s true colours”, Mr Stalin said.

Several opposition leaders have been imprisoned, interrogated, or had their cases investigated by federal agencies over the past year or so.

Just a few days ago, K. Kavitha, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi ( BRS ), was detained in the same investigation as Mr. Kejriwal. She denies the allegations.

Hemant Soren, the former head of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ( JMM), was detained by a federal tax authority in January on suspicion of money laundering and land grabbing. Mr Soren denies the allegations.

Following a complaint made by a BJP member, Mr. Gandhi was found guilty of criminal libel last year.

Before the verdict was thrown out by a higher court in August of last year, he was previously disqualified from parliament for a period of two years due to his two-year prison sentence.