Digvijaya Singh condemns Kejriwal's arrest, alleges 'unconstitutional emergency'
“His (Kejriwal’s) fault was he did not present himself after being served notices. He was arrested," the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Friday (March 22) denounced Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest and said that Opposition and democracy were being crushed through an “unconstitutional emergency”.
The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said Kejriwal’s only fault was that he had joined the INDIA bloc and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was contesting the Lok Sabha elections along with the Congress.
“I strongly castigate the arrest,” the Rajya Sabha member told the media in Bhopal.
Unconstitutional emergency
The Enforcement Directorate arrested Kejriwal in an excise policy-linked money laundering case on Thursday night, triggering criticism from opposition parties.
Singh said Kejriwal’s arrest followed an “unconstitutional emergency” in the country.
“His fault was he did not present himself after being served notices. He was arrested," he said.
Two emergencies
“In the history of India, this is the first time two sitting chief ministers have been sent to jail. (Then) Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren was pressured to join BJP with the promise that cases against him would be scrapped as done in other cases,” Singh said.
Some people compare the “emergencies of the 70s and now”, the Congress leader said.
“That emergency came into being under an Act which means under a law... But this emergency is unconstitutional by the way of which the ED, Income Tax and CBI are being asked to throttle people and extort,” he said.
Stifling democracy
The voice of democracy and Opposition are being stifled, he added.
Singh also criticised the Modi government for freezing his party’s accounts.
“In the mother of democracy or the largest democracy of the world, the Congress which has raised funds is unable to spend the money,” he said.