'Paralysing’ Opposition prior to polls not right

There is no scope left to doubt that the Union government headed by Mr. Narendra Modi is attempting to turn the forthcoming general election into a one-horse race.

There is blatant use (or misuse) of state machinery, court cases and media to cripple the opposition parties.

Thursday’s arrest of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and forcible freezing of the bank accounts of the Indian National Congress are the latest bid to stymie the capacity to campaign of the two principal adversaries of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the forthcoming general elections.

There cannot be a more brazen show of use of the institutions of governance to smother the opposition on the charges of corruption or irregularities in filing tax returns at a time when the BJP itself is emerging as the principal beneficiary of dirty money invested by corporate entities in the recently scrapped Electoral Bonds Scheme.

The party has maintained complete silence on this even as details of the trail of the stashes are leading up to party’s grandiose headquarters at the Deendayal Upadhyay Marg.

The freezing of the accounts of the Indian National Congress and forcible withdrawal of Rs. 115 crore from them serves as an index of what low the Modi dispensation can plumb to financially paralyse the party which has the potential of being the only challenger across the nation.

Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s remark that there is a systematic effort to throttle democracy in the country bears merit that it is a lie to say that India is the largest democracy in the world.

Events during the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections are emblematic that BJP’ will not spare any stratagem in its books of tricks to browbeat democracy, suppress all norms of decency and propriety.

While it succeeded in replacing opposition party governments in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar with its own party government during the last three years through devious means, similar attempts have proved abortive in Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh.

It was not long ago that chief minister of Jharkhand Hemant Soren was arrested in connection with a corruption case launched by ED on January 30, a charge he had denied.

The later events in the tribal dominated state have only proved that the fears of a bid to replace the Govt were true, though proved unsuccessful.

It is barely a month when the party emerged with a bruised face from the fiasco in Chandigarh where mayoral elections were rigged by a legislature functionary under express instructions from the party to disfigure the ballots in favour of the candidate of the joint opposition.

The plot was fortunately carried out under the gaze of the surveillance cameras and the opposition candidate was delivered what was due to him by the Supreme Court.

At another level, the Modi-led dispensation is subverting the federalism by encouraging the governors to confront the state governments. Jurisdictional lines are sought to be blurred between the operational norms and powers of the states.

While governor in Kerala has been insisting on appointing his own nominees as vice chancellors, the one in Punjab defied the state cabinet’s decision to call the legislature.

Governor of Tamil Nadu has transgressed all norms by sitting over bills passed by the state legislature and making additions, modifications and deletions in the state government-approved address to the legislature he is merely authorized to read out.

It is quite well-known that corruption is rife in the country but the Modi government is yet to explain why no BJP leader has so far been raided; why some leaders of the Opposition under its scanners defect and join the ruling party; why cases against defectors are not pursued; and, why there is so much of correlation between the dates the corporate entities were raided and purchased the Electoral Bonds.