Top leaders of India's opposition coalition and thousands of supporters have rallied in the capital, decrying "autocracy" in protest against the arrest of Delhi's leader, Arvind Kejriwal, ahead of the general election.
Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi and a key leader in an opposition alliance established to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was arrested and imprisoned earlier in March in connection with an ongoing corruption investigation.
India Opposition Protests Over Kejriwal's Arrest
Kejriwal's government is charged with accepting bribes in exchange for granting private businesses liquor licenses. A court on Thursday extended Kejriwal's detention until April 1.
The chief minister has denied the allegations. According to his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the liquor policy case is fabricated and politically driven.
After arresting Kejriwal, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), India's main financial investigation agency, began looking into the finances of at least four other state chief ministers and their families.
Nearly all inquiries involve Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) political rivals. The eastern state of Jharkhand's chief minister, Hemant Soren, was arrested in January over corruption charges.
Several leaders of the two dozen political parties of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, the INDIA opposition alliance, addressed the protest on Sunday.
Shiv Sena party leader Uddhav Thackeray, a former chief minister of Maharashtra state, told the flag-waving crowd that the country is headed towards autocracy, with many of them holding up posters showing Kejriwal in jail while a large number of police officers were watching.
Thackeray claimed that this one-man government was taking the country to ruin.
Tejashwi Yadav, another well-known opposition leader from Bihar state, called Modi's BJP "egotistical."
Yadav said that the country's significant issues are inflation and unemployment: "Today is the third rally and I want to tell wherever we are going, we are getting support from the people. We have come together to save the constitution."
He claimed that they would fight the battle and win.
In his speech, D Raja, the general secretary of the Communist Party of India, denounced Kejriwal's arrest.
He told Modi that he could not take the people of India for granted. He added that the government uses the ED, income tax, and all central agencies to target the opposition parties.
Sunita, Kejriwal's wife, read a letter from her jailed husband. The letter said that the people of India stand with Kejriwal, and he cannot be kept in jail forever.
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Indians to Vote on April 19
Nearly a billion Indians will vote to elect a new government in a six-week parliamentary election that begins on April 19. This is the world's greatest democratic exercise. The deadline for the six-phase voting is June 1, and the ballots will be counted on June 4.
Since Modi's strong Hindu nationalist politics resonate with the country's majority faith, many analysts view Modi's re-election as inevitable.
Despite Modi's strong popularity, others accuse him of intimidating opposition leaders with the help of law enforcement. Before Kejriwal was arrested, all of the AAP's key figures were already behind bars concerning the liquor policy case.
