{"id":6603,"date":"2024-03-22T11:55:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T11:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/22\/arvind-kejriwal-arrested-indias-pm-narendra-modi-criticised-as-protests-held-over-political-rivals-detention\/"},"modified":"2024-03-22T11:55:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T11:55:15","slug":"arvind-kejriwal-arrested-indias-pm-narendra-modi-criticised-as-protests-held-over-political-rivals-detention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/22\/arvind-kejriwal-arrested-indias-pm-narendra-modi-criticised-as-protests-held-over-political-rivals-detention\/","title":{"rendered":"Arvind Kejriwal arrested: India’s PM Narendra Modi criticised as protests held over political rival’s detention"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Arvind<\/div>


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India’s prime minister has been labelled a “scared dictator” after a key opposition politician was arrested.<\/p>\n

Delhi<\/strong><\/a>‘s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, a prominent anti-corruption campaigner, was detained following a raid on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

He leads the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – also known as the Common People’s Party – and the arrest comes weeks before national elections are due to begin.<\/p>\n

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AAP is part of an alliance of opposition parties who have joined together as the main challenger to Narendra Modi<\/strong><\/a>‘s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).<\/p>\n

Rivals claim Mr Modi is using law enforcement agencies to orchestrate a crackdown, and Mr Kejriwal’s arrest sparked protests on Friday.<\/p>\n

Thousands demonstrated in Delhi – with some shouting “death to democracy, long live Kejriwal!” – and security forces have been deployed.<\/p>\n

India<\/strong><\/a>‘s Enforcement Directorate, a federal agency controlled by Mr Modi’s government, has accused Mr Kejriwal’s party and ministers of accepting one billion rupees (\u00a39.5m) in bribes over Delhi’s alcohol policies.<\/p>\n

The AAP has denied the “fabricated” allegations – and vowed that Mr Kejriwal will remain the city’s top elected official as he fights the case in court.<\/p>\n

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Political commentator Neerja Chowdhury said: “It looks like harassment because only opposition leaders are being singled out.”<\/p>\n

Noting that no investigations have been launched against members of Mr Modi’s party, she added: “It’s not a level playing field.”<\/p>\n

The government has been accused of misusing its power to harass and weaken political rivals – gaining an unfair advantage in the polls.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:<\/strong>
Why man sees distorted ‘demon-like’ faces<\/strong><\/a>
Sir Keir Starmer criticises new England kit <\/a>
‘Groundbreaking’ lung cancer jab developed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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A slew of raids, arrests and corruption investigations have been launched against opposition figures, with charges dropped against some who later joined Mr Modi’s party.<\/p>\n

The BJP says law enforcement agencies are acting independently of the government, with a spokesperson accusing Mr Kejriwal’s party of playing the “victim card”.<\/p>\n

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party, wrote on X: “A scared dictator wants to create a dead democracy.”<\/p>\n

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Congress has separately accused the government of freezing its bank account in an attempt to cripple its election campaigning.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, AAP politician Raghav Chadha said: “India is under an undeclared emergency. Our democracy stands critically endangered today.”<\/p>\n

Mr Kejriwal launched the AAP in 2012 and has campaigned on a promise to rid India’s political system of corruption – with a broom as his party’s logo.<\/p>\n

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India’s general election is due to take place in seven phases from 19 April to 1 June, with results due to be declared three days later.<\/p>\n

It is widely expected that Mr Modi will win a third term.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India’s prime minister has been labelled a “scared dictator” after a key opposition politician was arrested. Delhi‘s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, a prominent anti-corruption campaigner, was detained following a raid on Thursday night. He leads the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – also known as the Common People’s Party – and the arrest comes weeks before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/03\/768x432\/skynews-arvind-kejriwal-india_6497711.jpg?20240322101536","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3873,2896,1398,10454,3502,925,750,1686,7792,234,10452,10453],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6605,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6603\/revisions\/6605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}