The arrest of Nawab Malik was neither stunning nor unexpected

No, Nawab Malik's detention was neither surprising nor alarming. Nawab Malik, a Maharashtra Cabinet Member and prominent Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) politician, was arrested and questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last week. To any politically aware Indian, this arrest is about politics, not about the crime.

 

Massive attacks on opposition political parties, leaders, institutions, and individuals have become routine since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP government came to office. The BJP's arrest of Malik was yet another nasty message to the opposition political parties, ordering them to get in line or face the consequences.

 

The BJP government of Narendra Modi is not the first to engage in such disgusting political vendettas. However, there is no doubt that this dictatorship has broken all previous records for crushing opposition. Now, who is Nawab Malik to me or other non-Maharashtra residents engaged in politics? After the arrest of Aryan Khan, the son of a Bollywood star, I became aware of him.

 

The arrest was made in connection with a drug investigation. Then Malik became one of the most outspoken critics of the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) and its former director, Sameer Wankhede. After Malik took on the central agency, he was subjected to a slew of political attacks. His family was also harassed. Significantly, he attempted to show the link between the NCB's crackdown in the name of reducing Mumbai's drug problem and the BJP-led Central Government.

 

The new arrest, however, is directed not only at Malik but also against the Maharashtra administration. The bad part is that during the Modi administration, anytime we heard about IRS raids or arrests by the ED or the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), we saw political connections.

 

Let's look at some more countries where the opposition is in power. India has seen such an onslaught on opposition parties before every state election under Prime Minister Modi. Last year, Mamata Banerjee, the leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), won a landslide victory over the BJP in Bengal. The CBI detained three prominent TMC leaders just days after the government was formed, including two Cabinet Ministers, one of whom was also the mayor of Kolkata, and one MLA. Similarly, the ED is looking into Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek's involvement in a purported coal fraud.

 

In this matter, the central agency has named and questioned numerous top TMC leaders. The CBI detained an official who used to work for top Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia ahead of the 2020 Delhi assembly elections. The arrest took place only a few days before the election.

 

 

Image Courtesy: Twitter @OfficeofNM