The head of one of India’s leading opposition parties was arrested in dramatic fashion on Thursday, the same day one other party said it had been blocked from accessing its bank accounts – a move by Narendra Modi’s government that critics say is geared toward bringing him to justice. rivals at a difficult drawback ahead of the crucial general election in April.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal was arrested late Thursday night at his home in New Delhi, where lots of of protesters had gathered to protest his arrest by the federal financial crime agency. Mr. Kejriwal, who can be the chief minister of the national capital region, New Delhi, was arrested on corruption charges in reference to the city’s alcohol policy. His party leaders say the allegations are false.
The campaign is gaining momentum ahead of six weeks of elections that begin on April 19 and can select the next prime minister in the world’s most populous democracy. To campaign from the Himalayas to India’s southern coast, political groups spend billions of dollars on elections considered some of the costliest in the world.
As the vote approaches, opposition activists say they are battling a wave of trouble from the government, including from Mr. Modi, who’s deploying the country’s most important investigative agencies against them while protecting those that defect to his side.
Among them is Mr. Kejriwal, who has been stuck in a cat-and-mouse game with agents in recent months after at the very least two of his ministers were sent to jail. On Thursday evening, greater than a dozen officers arrived at his home and, in line with his party leaders, took his cellphone and the cellphones of relations. He was arrested after many hours of interrogation.
“The central government wants to finish off all opposition parties,” Atishi Marlena, a minister in the Delhi government, said outside Mr. Kejriwal’s residence, referring to Mr. Modi’s government.
She said Mr Kejriwal had just began the party’s election campaign.
Mr. Modi’s party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has been attempting to contain the growth of the Aam Aadmi Party because it tried to expand beyond the national capital region of New Delhi. New Delhi’s contested alcohol policy 2021 clearly presented a chance.
Under this policy, the Delhi government has allowed private sellers for all alcohol sales in the city, a departure from earlier regulations that allowed private and non-private sellers to work together. The central government accuses officials of Mr. Kejriwal’s party of receiving bribes.
Another politician, Hemant Soren, chief minister of the eastern state of Jharkhand, was arrested in January after being accused by federal agents of corruption in a land deal. He denied the allegations and resigned before going to prison.
Kejriwal’s arrest ended a day of political unrest in New Delhi and got here shortly after India’s largest opposition party accused the national government of paralyzing its political activity by blocking access to its bank accounts.
Officials of the party, the Indian National Congress, said eight of 11 major accounts in 4 banks had been frozen and there was no clear indication when the party would regain access to the money.
“We cannot support our employees; we cannot support our candidates,” Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Indian National Congress, said at a news conference in New Delhi. “Our leaders cannot fly. Forget about flying – they can’t take the train.”
“Our ability to fight the elections has been damaged,” he said.
The National Income Tax Department, controlled by the Modi government, has frozen the accounts of the Congress party in reference to its 2017-18 filings, saying the party was 45 days late in filing its income tax returns.
Under Indian law, political groups are exempt from paying income tax on funds contributed by individuals and corporations, but they must declare their income to tax authorities yearly. The current dispute concerns how severely the Indian National Congress needs to be punished for its past irregularities.
The Congress party has acknowledged the late turnaround but argues that freezing the accounts so near the elections is a radical political move geared toward crippling India’s most important opposition group and paving the way for one-party rule.
“The idea that India is a democracy is a lie,” Gandhi said.
Modi’s officials rejected the claims, describing them as a desperate attempt by the political opposition, which is fighting to revive the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in the election campaign.
Ruling party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the tax exemption of any political group stays valid provided that the group declares any contributions to the national tax authority on time.
The issue of political financing has exploded in India in recent weeks. The country’s Supreme Court recently forced the government-owned State Bank of India to release a list of all individuals who made anonymous political donations through a financing mechanism called “electoral bonds,” removing the veil of secrecy that opposition groups have long claimed to assist those that have authorities.
Mr. Modi’s party received the largest amount of funds.
