Modi’s electoral manipulations

The Modi government’s authoritarianism has been on full display over the past few weeks, with the imprisonment of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal best illustrating the BJP’s efforts to turn the self-proclaimed ‘Mother of All Democracies’ into the clown car of all democracies. Kejriwal was arrested and jailed in late May under an anti-money laundering law passed by the BJP government in 2018, just before the previous elections. Since being passed, the law has only been used to punish political rivals and ‘encourage’ ultra-rich Indians to bankroll the BJP. Only a handful of cases led to convictions, and most were dropped when the suspected pledged fealty to Modi.

Also notable is how the Modi government has used the Enforcement Directorate — which can search and indefinitely detain suspects without a warrant — to go after political rivals. For example, despite the recent revelations about how the BJP collected billions in near-bribes under the guise of ‘electoral bonds’, only opposition figures are being investigated for abusing electoral bonds.

One of the biggest flaws in the Kejriwal case is the presumption of guilt built into the law — suspects can be jailed and treated like convicts until a court determines they are innocent, similar to the original iteration of Pakistan’s much-maligned NAB law. But the presumption of guilt is almost always in contravention of India’s — and nearly every other country’s — obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially when the government admits in court that it has no actual evidence to tie the suspect to the crime. It appears the only witness is also a BJP donor who was given immunity from prosecution.

Kejriwal’s arrest was even more surprising because he is the first Indian chief minister ever to be arrested while in office, despite the country’s rich history of uber-corrupt government functionaries. The country also has a rich history of forgiving politicians accused of crimes, even letting a chief minister credibly accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing to become prime minister.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2024.

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