I was a small kid when Emergency was imposed in the country. I have a very faint idea about it, but yesterday, I felt it from a very close quarter and realized what it was, and why the country in the mid-70s was so outraged and why it is still considered a black chapter in Indian history. Yesterday, a duly elected Chief Minister's office was raided and sealed and nobody was allowed to enter the third floor of the central secretariat where the Chief Minister of Delhi sits. When I was contacted by the media for my reaction, I could not believe that this had really happened. At least I had not imagined it was possible. I had to make a few phone calls to party colleagues and to members of the cabinet to confirm the news. Finally, I read Arvind Kejriwal's tweets.
In independent India, in an open democracy, the government's much-maligned investigative agency, the CBI, described about two years ago by the Supreme Court as a caged parrot, has been used to settle political scores and discredit an honest government. The pretext was to raid and investigate the Principal Secretary of the Chief Minister in a case of corruption. This officer had an impeccable record till a few months ago when a disgruntled officer complained against him for alleged wrongdoing in the allotment of a tender in his earlier posting in the VAT department. This complaint was given to the Anti-Corruption Bureau which itself was forcibly taken over by the central government and this complaint was "royally" forwarded to the CBI, which directly reports to the central government. This was the bureaucrat who was given the Prime Minister's excellence award in 2008 for his professionalism and integrity in discharging his duty as an officer.
Now, the CBI is saying this officer needs to be investigated and his office has to be probed. This is an alibi, a lame excuse - the target is Arvind Kejriwal's government; this is an attempt to intimidate him, his cabinet colleagues and his party. It is an attempt to teach him a lesson. Mr Modi has a record of politically targeting his opponents, browbeating those who dare challenge him. Modi's twelve years' rule in Gujarat are witness to this fact. There are a number of examples where old dead cases were dug out, frivolous cases were lodged and opponents were put behind bars. Unfortunately, Arvind Kejriwal and AAP crossed his path.
Remember Arvind Kejriwal had decided to visit Gujarat before the parliamentary elections to expose his model of development. During his visit, he was detained for a few hours on the pretext of traffic disruption. It was the same Arvind Kejriwal who decided to openly challenge Modi in Varanasi in electoral politics. It was the same Arvind Kejriwal whose party contested elections in Delhi and recorded the most stunning victory in Indian political history. This magical victory was the victory of hope. It came at a time when Mr Modi was thought to be invincible, he had just emerged victorious in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana and also in Jammu and Kashmir. Nobody could think that he could be defeated, or that the margin of defeat could be so humiliating. The BJP, despite Mr Modi's popularity was reduced to only three seats. For Mr Modi, nothing could be more insulting than this. This was Mr Modi's first ever defeat since 2001.
Soon after the government was sworn in, the vendetta against the AAP and its government started. One after another, AAP MLAs were targeted, they were jailed on frivolous charges. It was not a coincidence that BJP veteran
LK Advani said in an interview to Indian Express that forces of democracy have been weakened and an Emergency-like situation is emerging on the horizon. Advani was credited with having saved Mr Modi from being sacked by Atal Bihari Vajpayee after the Gujarat riots, but the same Advani refused to accept him as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the BJP. He did not attend the Goa conference where Modi was elected the chief of the campaign committee. Instead, he preferred to refer to Mussolini and Hitler in one of his blogs.
Yesterday's incident is a kind of a coup. In independent India, no other Chief Minister's office has been raided and sealed like this. Yes, I am not denying the fact that there have been incidents when the Principal Secretary of a Chief Minister has been raided and put behind bars. But never ever has the Chief Minister's office been targeted like this. There is no allegation of corruption against Arvind Kejriwal. In fact, he has set an example by sacking his own cabinet colleague in October after receiving a serious complaint with credible evidence against the minister. He did not wait for the news to appear in the media or for the matter to be raised by the opposition.
A few days ago, Arvind Kejriwal's office tipped off the CBI about the corruption of one of his senior IAS officers. The officer was caught red-handed accepting a bribe. In this case, it was expected from the investigating agency that as a courtesy, the CBI should have informed the Chief Minister's office about the raid as mandated by the CBI's internal circular. But it did not. May I ask why? The AAP government has repeatedly said that the party is the product of the anti-corruption-movement, it will not tolerate corruption and corrupt officers, and it will take strictest action against such people. I am dead sure if this case was also presented to the Chief Minister with "credible evidence", similar action would have followed.
Since the CBI had some ulterior motive, It did not bother to inform the Chief Minister, and instead of raiding the departments where the officer concerned had indulged in alleged wrong-doing in the past, it took forcible possession of the Chief Minister's office. There was no reason for the CBI to look into the files related to the Chief Minister's office. Ideally, if the CBI was so concerned about unearthing corruption, it would have raided the VAT department where the Principal Secretary had allegedly indulged in the so-called scam.
Mr Modi is no ordinary leader. He loves to listen to his own voice. But sometimes dictators tend to forget, like Mrs Indira Gandhi, that India is not a banana republic, it is a vibrant democracy where We the People are supreme. AAP knows that finally this battle will be fought in the court of the people which will ask why an attempt was made to destabilise a democratically-elected government. Mr Modi has to answer as this was no ordinary raid, it was a raid to kill the spirit of the constitution, to maul the federal structure of the democracy. It was an attempt to impose an undeclared Emergency in Delhi. It was only for such incidents that it was said "Those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it, first time as farce and second time as tragedy".
This tragedy will haunt Mr Modi.
(Ashutosh joined the Aam Aadmi Party in January 2014.)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.