Centre may impose President’s rule in Delhi
Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Mar 22: National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah today said the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was a blot on democracy, and shows Bhartiya Janta Party’s remarkable degree of nervousness.
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The junior Abdullah said that if the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) continues with Kejriwal as Chief Minister of Delhi, Centre may impose President’s rule in the State. “If AAP insists to retain Kejriwal as the CM from jail, the Centre will most probably use it as an excuse to impose President’s rule in Delhi”, he told reporters.
The former CM said his party stands with Kejriwal and his AAP. “Aisi Taisi Democracy. For all the talk of 400+ seats, the ruling dispensation is displaying a remarkable degree of nervousness. Having a sitting CM arrested by a pliable Central agency within days of the general elections being announced is a blot on democracy,” Abdullah said in a post on X.
Speaking to reporters here in Srinagar, Omar said Kejriwal’s arrest was clearly linked to elections. “Within days of the EC announcing the dates for the Lok Sabha polls, you see that the sitting Chief Minister and an important part of the opposition alliance has been arbitrarily arrested by the ED,” he said.
However, the NC leader said Kejriwal is not the first opposition leader to face ED action. “Some weeks ago, the sitting CM of Jharkhand was also in a similar position. His Deputy Chief Minister was also arrested last year, besides others also. This is just unfortunately a part of a process whereby democratic institutions in this country have gradually been eroded to a point that they almost now cease to exist,” he said.
The former CM said whether the country realises the threat that our democracy faces, only time will tell, but, the legacy that this Government would leave is extremely unfortunate for the country.
“This has been going on for many years and there is no party left now which opposes the BJP and has not been targeted like this. This is a small part of the new democracy that has been established in our country in the last few years. But, all democratic institutions have been rendered hollow one by one,” he said.
Abdullah said that people did not even believe in the courts now. “When there was an Emergency at the time of Indira Gandhi, at least the people had the belief that they could knock on the doors of courts to get justice. But, today, unfortunately when the name of the judge is announced, we know what his decision would be. If this is the situation of our courts, then who will the people believe,” he said.
To a query about the ED’s summons to NC president Farooq Abdullah, the junior Abdullah said they would face whatever they have to face.
“This is not something new. We have faced it in the past, we will continue to face it. We are fighting against the BJP. We have constantly fought against what the BJP has done to J-K in August 2019,” he said.
Asked about rumours that NC would join hands with the NDA, Abdullah said his party would not.
“Why? It is you who is saying this. We have neither heard this, nor have we given such an indication. We will not want to join NDA. We have nothing to do with NDA. We are here to defeat the BJP in J&K,” he added.
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