BJP wants to make India an autocracy: Raghav Chadha

AAP Senior Leader and Rajya Sabha MP Shri Raghav Chadha lambasted the BJP, accusing it of wanting to turn India into an opposition-less nation. He said that BJP wants to make India an autocracy, perhaps even a one party-one leader state, highlighting the BJP’s misuse of central agencies like ED-CBI against the opposition. The MP listed out names of prominent leaders like Shri Manish Sisodia of AAP, Smt K Kavitha of BRS, Shri Abhishek Banerjee of TMC among others, saying that if all these leaders joined the BJP, all charges against them would be dropped. He explained how several leaders who had numerous alleged corruption charges against them were cleared of all charges after joining the BJP.

He cited the example of the current Chief Minister of Assam, Shri Himanta Biswa Sarma, who had multiple serious corruption cases registered against him while he was in the Congress. The AAP MP further accused the BJP of becoming a "washing machine" that clears charges of corruption against any opposition leader who joins the party. He compared the case of Shri Manish Sisodia to the son of a BJP MLA in Karnataka who was caught with Rs 8 crores of unaccounted and illegal wealth but was not arrested or questioned by any agency. In a press conference on Saturday, Shri Raghav Chadha said that if leaders like Shri Manish Sisodia, Shri Satyendar Jain, Shri Abhishek Banerjee of the TMC, Shri Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena, Shri Farooq Abdullah of the NC, Shri DK Shivakumar of the Congress, Smt K Kavitha of the TRS, Shri Tejaswi Yadav of the RJD — leave their own political parties and join the BJP at this time, then the multiple cases registered against them by the ED and CBI will all be closed. He pointed out that this is the truth of the matter and this is the kind of politics that the BJP is indulging in at the moment.

He also pointed out that there are multiple such leaders who while they were in the opposition parties had numerous cases registered against them but as soon as they joined the BJP they were cleared of all the charges. He took the example of current Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, and said that while he was in the Congress he had multiple serious charges of alleged corruption registered against him. He also gave the example of Subendu Adhikari, the opposition leader in the West Bengal legislative assembly and pointed out how after he joined the BJP, all the cases against him were closed and now he is also being provided with Z plus security by the Centre. He also pointed out how Narayan Rane, a senior leader from Maharashtra, had multiple cases registered by CBI and ED against him, but as soon as he joined the BJP all of these cases were closed. He also pointed out that the same was the case with Mukul Roy, a senior leader from West Bengal. Shri Raghav Chadha said that the BJP has today become a washing machine that without any detergent powder manages to clear the charges of corruption against any leader of the opposition.

Taking the example of Shri Manish Sisodia he pointed out that the CBI and the ED had first registered a case against him in August last year. “Over the last six months, multiple raids were conducted at his office, residence, bank locker and even ancestral village and yet nothing was found on him. But still, due to political reasons he was arrested by these investigative agencies and put behind bars.” Drawing parallels with another case said, “On the other hand, the son of a BJP MLA in Karnataka was caught red-handed with Rs 8 crores of unaccounted and illegal wealth and yet he was not arrested. He was not even called for any form of questioning by an agency and in fact the agencies went ahead and got anticipatory bail for the accused.” He said that this must be the first such example of the criminal justice system in this country where an accused is caught red-handed with Rs 8 crores of bribe and yet he does not go to jail.

The agencies that are supposed to investigate the case are involved in getting bail for the accused and after that a roadshow is held in his constituency where thousands gather and welcome the accused. Comparing the cases that have been filed against Shri Manish Sisodia and this BJP MLA from Karnataka, Shri Raghav Chadha pointed out that despite multiple searches, no money or ill-accounted wealth could be recovered from the senior AAP leader, while the BJP MLA’s son was caught red-handed with cash, yet the person who is in jail is Shri Manish Sisodia and not this BJP MLA’s son. “The only reasoning behind this was that Shri Manish Sisodia is a soldier of Shri Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party. The AAP leader worked hard to improve education for 18 lakh children in Delhi and whenever he was given an offer to join the BJP, he went on to say that I would rather consume poison and kill myself instead of joining the BJP”, Shri Raghav Chadha said. Shri Raghav Chadha further looked at the history of the CBI since 2014 and said that since the BJP-led Central Government was formed around 95 percent of the cases of alleged corruption have been against the leaders of the opposition parties.

Notably, 30 cases have been registered against leaders of TMC, 26 cases against leaders of Indian National Congress, 10 cases against leaders of RJD, 10 cases against leaders of BJD, 6 cases against leaders of YSRCP, 5 cases against leaders of BSP, 5 cases against leaders of TDP, 4 cases against leaders of AAP, 4 cases against leaders of AIADMK, 4 cases against leaders of SP, 4 cases against leaders of CPM, 3 cases against leaders of NCP, 2 cases against leaders of NC, 2 cases against leaders of BRS, 2 cases against leaders of DMK, 1 case against a leader of PDP. He further pointed out that no other political party in the history of India must have misused the investigative agencies as much as the BJP, and said that the reason for this misuse is very straightforward. He accused the BJP of trying to form an Opposition-less India and convert the Indian democracy into an autocracy. “The agencies are being misused to break the backbone of every other political party in India and to jail their leaders under some pretext or the other,” he said. He added that all these opposition leaders against whom cases are on-going, the day they leave their political party and join the BJP, the investigations against them will immediately be stopped.

Referring to AAP senior leader Shri Manish Sisodia’s case, he said that every other person involved in the case has gotten bail and on March 10, Shri Manish Sisodia’s bail plea was to be heard by the court. “But the Central Government intentionally did not produce the CBI lawyer in court and due to it the next hearing for the case was scheduled for March 21st, this means that Shri Manish Sisodia will further stay in jail. Also, a night before his bail plea was to be heard, ED also registered a case against him, so that he would stay in jail for longer now,” he said. He pointed out that the facts of the case and the evidence against him are the same, but both CBI and ED have registered separate cases and the Central Government is now playing “case-case” against the senior AAP leader. He also said that the fact that the CBI lawyer did not reach court on Friday, shows that the Central Government is misusing the agencies in the country.

He said that what has happened in this case is a classic textbook example of abuse of process of law. He concluded by saying that the Aam Aadmi Party does not fear these false cases and nor does it fear going to jail. He said that it is a political party that was formed after a struggle and therefore its leaders are ready to fight again for this country. “Just like how our leaders in the past fought against the Britishers for years to attain freedom and several people were jailed during that time. The leaders of AAP will fight against the BJP, and eventually like in the past, we will also attain our victory. Shri Manish Sisodia is a brave leader who is the freedom fighter in this dark age and eventually the truth will triumph and Manish Sisodia will emerge from jail,” he said.