Guwahati: Nine Opposition leaders on Sunday, jotted down about ‘misuse of central agencies’ to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the letter the leaders expressed their concern over the “blatant misuse of Central agencies against the members of the Opposition”, following the arrest of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the excise policy case.
The letter said, “The arrest was a “witch hunt” which suggests that “we have transitioned from being a democracy to an autocracy.”
The nine leaders including Kejriwal have written to PM Modi in response to the arrest of former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia in the excise policy case.
The signatories of the letter include Chief Ministers K. Chandrashekar Rao, Mamata Banerjee, Bhagwant Mann and Arvind Kejriwal, along with National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Sena’s Uddav Thackeray, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.
Congress did not sign the letter. Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case. The letter, addressed to the Prime Minister, said, “After a long witch-hunt, Manish Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with alleged irregularity without a shred of evidence against him,” adding that the charges were “outrightly baseless and smack of a political conspiracy”.
Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26th in connection with allegations of corruption in the creation and execution of the now-cancelled 2021–22 liquor policy. The CBI asserted that Mr. Sisodia was “not cooperating,” thus Sisodia was placed in judicial remand until March 4, which was later extended by two days.
According to the leaders of the opposition, Sisodia’s incarceration simply confirms what the rest of the world already believed, namely that India’s democratic ideals had deteriorated and withered under the dictatorial BJP administration.
The leaders wished to draw attention to the excessive frequency of Opposition leader arrests by Central authorities.