Kejriwal arrest destroys level playing field: INDIA bloc to EC

In a memorandum submitted to the EC, the INDIA party leaders submitted a list of recent instances of central agencies targeting opposition parties and alleged an absence of a level playing field for the opposition.

Having rallied behind Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, leaders of the INDIA bloc Friday approached the Election Commission alleging that his arrest was the “blatant and audacious misuse” of Central agencies by the Government. And that it had resulted in the “erosion of the level playing field” and asked the poll body to put in place a mechanism to ensure that raids, investigations and arrests during the campaign period are first vetted and approved by the EC or a committee set up under it.

The meeting came on a day the Congress, which had been critical of the Arvind Kejriwal government over the Delhi excise policy flagging corruption and demanding action, too held street protests in the national capital against his arrest and over “freezing” of the party’s bank accounts. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spoke to Kejriwal’s wife Sunita over phone.

“The entire nation is witness to the unrelenting, blatant and illegal deployment of Central agencies by the party in power to target, suffocate and intimidate the opposition parties. Such unconscionable misuse of state machinery by a party in power, is a direct threat to the sanctity of free and fair elections, as they completely erode the core of our democracy, namely free and fair elections,” said a petition given by the parties. Among them were leaders of the Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK, Samajwadi Party, AAP, CPM and NCP-SCP.

Referring to the arrest of Kejriwal and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren in January, they said “these arrests of individuals holding Constitutional posts are clearly intended to have a stifling and deleterious effect on the democratic functioning of the affairs of their respective states, as well as the parties themselves. It is a move that is deliberately designed to demotivate and demoralise the members of these parties and the opposition at large…Their arrests are meant to send a message straight to the voter. That the ruling regime will not countenance any real opposition to its electoral ambitions.”

The parties told the Commission that the arrest of Kejriwal and Soren were not isolated. They brought to the EC’s notice the “freezing” of the bank accounts of the Congress which was “followed by forceful recoveries”, the raids and arrest of leaders of the BRS, RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav’s aide, Trinamool Congress leader Shankar Adhya and the raids on on NCP-SCP leader Rohit Pawar, West Bengal Minister and TMC leaders Sujit Bose and Tapas Roy, Rajya Sabha MP and AAP leader N D Gupta besides the registration of an FIR by the CBI against TMC leader Mahua Moitra.

“There emerges a clear, deliberate and sinister pattern, where the ruling regime is abusing its power, and completely destroying any semblance of a level playing field for other political parties contesting the Lok Sabha elections. Never before has such high-handedness ever been witnessed,” the parties said, arguing that the “blatant misuse of central investigative agencies is in direct violation of past EC instructions, provisions of the Representation of People Act and the IPC.

They pointed out that the EC had in a circular in 2019 said that “enforcement actions during the election period, even when conducted ruthlessly with a view to curb that blatant electoral malpractice (of using money power to influence voter behavior), be absolutely neutral, impartial and non-discriminatory. Further, in case of suspected use of such illicit money for electoral purposes, the Chief Electoral Officer should be kept suitably informed while the Model Code of Conduct is in force.”

They said the Model Code of Conduct too states that “the party in power whether at the Centre or in the State concerned or in the State or States concerned, shall ensure that no cause is given for any complainant that it has used its official position for the purposes of its election campaign”. Besides, they argued that “baseless and malicious arrests, raids and investigations” also amounts to ‘undue influence’ as provided in the Representation of People Act and the IPC.

Quoting a 1959 Supreme Court order, they said the apex court while discussing the concept of ‘undue influence’ had held that “to justify the violation, what was material under law, was not the actual effect produced, but the doing of such acts as are calculated to interfere with the free exercise of any electoral right.”

“Hence, the act of misusing central investigating agencies with the calculated attempt to interfere in the electoral prospects of political parties, clearly falls within the ambit of being an act of ‘undue influence’,” they said.