One of India’s political scholars, Suhas Palshikar, says that the arrest of Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal is not merely an attempt to deflect attention from the electoral bonds issue but, as he put it, “a firm message that elections simply won’t be fair, much less free”.
In a 28-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, professor Palshikar, who is chief editor of Studies in Indian Politics, said, “Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest was not merely for immediate tactical reasons. It has a special meaning which must be carefully understood.”
He added: “I thought for a sitting CM such an arrest has a message and that message is that the Opposition parties of the Union government will not be allowed to function freely in the election season. That is something we should mull over.”
Professor Palshikar said Kejriwal’s arrest is not just bad for Kejriwal himself personally, but it’s a sad and a sorry message for everyone who is interested in India’s democracy and for the Opposition, in particular.
He said that all other non-BJP chief ministers and, indeed, prominent non-BJP politicians are “on notice”, as, he said, they are “in the line-up” of potential targets after Kejriwal. Action could be taken against them too.
He added that the message to other Opposition politicians is “if you cross the boundary and take up cudgels on behalf of the Opposition … the message has gone to the public that we can arrest anyone on the eve of elections … this itself means there is a diminishing freedom of expression and registering dissent”.
