The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has criticized the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for calling itself a "victim" of vendetta politics following the arrest of Delhi deputy state chief Manish Sisodia in the alleged liquor policy scam.
"This is the complete transformation of a political party that started its journey as India against corruption. ["India Against Corruption" was an anti-corruption movement in the 2010s]. Today they [the AAP] are doing celebration and protection of corruption, they are looking at the action against corruption as mental harassment...They are playing the victim card to safeguard themselves from the allegations of corruption", BJP National Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla told reporters.
Opposition Alleges Misuse of Federal Agencies
Poonawala's remarks came after eight opposition parties, including the AAP, wrote a letter to BJP's Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that federal investigating agencies were targeting politicians belonging to political parties rivaling the BJP.
"We hope you would agree that India is still a democratic country. The blatant misuse of central agencies against the members of the opposition appears to suggest that we have transitioned from being a democracy to an autocracy," the letter read.
While the signatories to the letter didn't include India's main opposition party, the Congress Party, many other prominent opposition party leaders signed the document. These included the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Punjab, Telangana and West Bengal, as well as Bhagwant Mann, K Chandrashekar Rao, and Mamata Banerjee, respectively. Apart from them, the Nationalist Congress Party boss Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party head Akhilesh Yadav, Sena's Uddav Thackeray, and Bihar deputy state chief Tejashwi Yadav also signed the letter.
Why CBI Arrested Sisodia
Last week, AAP No.2 Sisodia was arrested by the CBI after the federal investigative agency questioned him about the alleged financial irregularities in the Delhi government's 2021 liquor policy.
The AAP-led Delhi government introduced a new liquor policy in November 2021 under which licenses were issued to private vendors to open shops, thus ending government control over the sale of alcohol in the national capital.
Among other rules, shop owners were allowed to deliver liquor at home, offer discounts, and permit licensees to extend shop opening hours from midnight to 3 am.
Citing these changes, the BJP accused Sisodia, who was the chief of Delhi's excise department at the time, of bending rules in favor of private liquor vend licensees.
Following the allegations, Delhi's Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena ordered a CBI investigation into the matter.
The first to be apprehended in the liquor case last September was the party's communications officer Vijay Nair. Sisodia is the second Aam Aadmi Party politician to be arrested in the case. Sisodia has been in jail since last Sunday and both the Supreme Court of India and a Delhi court have rejected his bail plea.