India News | Attempt to Paralyse the Opposition: CPI's D Raja on Arrest of Kejriwal

Patna, Mar 22 (PTI) CPI general secretary D Raja on Friday deplored the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, calling it an attempt to "paralyse" the opposition by the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.

He also dubbed as "financial terrorism" the freezing of bank accounts of the Congress, the CPI's alliance partner in the opposition bloc INDIA, and claimed that the BJP will be "taught a lesson" by the people in the Lok Sabha elections.

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"We strongly condemn the arrest of Kejriwal, which comes after the Lok Sabha polls schedule was announced. How will the Aam Aadmi Party chief take part in campaigning now? It is clearly an attempt to paralyse the opposition,” Raja told PTI video here.

"I challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take on his opponents politically. He fears public anger on issues like poverty, unemployment and price rise. A reason why his government is using central agencies, especially, ED, to intimidate the opposition,” the CPI leader alleged.

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"Likewise, freezing of bank accounts of the Congress by the I-T department can be called financial terrorism. It can serve no other purpose than instilling fear into the minds of political opponents of Modi. But, the current dispensation is going to be taught a lesson by the electorate,” claimed the Left leader.

The CPI general secretary, who hails from Tamil Nadu, made light of the prime minister's efforts to make inroads, for the BJP, in the southern states.

"The BJP had been in power in Karnataka where it has been vanquished. It got snuffed out in Telangana.

“In Tamil Nadu, which has its own tradition of social reform movements, I see no possibility of the right-wing Hindutva politics of the BJP getting a toehold,” Raja asserted.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)