New Delhi, Mar 6 (FN Agency) Major Opposition parties on Sunday wrote a joint letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on misuse of Central agencies in the country. The joint letter, addressed to the Prime Minister and a copy of which was signed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (BRS) Farooq Abdullah (JKNC), Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (AITC) Sharad Pawar (NCP), Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal (AAP) Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena, UBT), Chief Minister, Bhagwant Mann (AAP) Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD) and was released to the media here said, 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.
On February 26, 2023, after a long witch-hunt, Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with alleged irregularity without a shred of evidence against him. The allegations against Sisodia are outrightly baseless and smack of a political conspiracy. His arrest has enraged people across the country. Manish Sisodia is recognised globally for transforming Delhi’s school education. His arrest will 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.
Out of the total number of key politicians booked, arrested, raided or interrogated by the investigation agencies under your administration since 2014, the maximum belongs to the opposition. Interestingly, investigation agencies go slow on cases against Opposition politicians who join the BJP. For example, former Congress member and current Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was probed by the CBI and the ED in 2014 and 2015 over the Saradha chit fund scam. However, the case didn’t progress after he joined the BJP. Similarly, former TMC leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Shri Mukul Roy were under the ED and CBI scanner in the Narada sting operation case but the cases didn’t progress after they joined the BJP ahead of the assembly polls in the state. There are many such examples, including that of Narayan Rane of Maharashtra.
Since 2014, there has been a marked rise in the number of raids conducted, cases lodged against and arrest of the opposition leaders. Be it Lalu Prasad Yadav (Rashtriya Janata Dal), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena), Azam Khan (Samajwadi Party), Nawab Malik, Anil Deshmukh (NCP), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), central agencies have often sparked suspicion that they were working as extended wings of the ruling dispensation at the Centre. In many such cases, the timings of the cases lodged, or arrests made have coincided with elections making it abundantly clear that they were politically motivated.