- PONMALA
Accused of corruption in Liquor Policy case, Arvind Kejriwal was kept in jail for 6 months. The Delhi High Court discharged him and 22 other accused on 27 February 2026, noting that the evidence adduced in the chargesheets did not raise “grave suspicions” against the accused. But in a challenge to the order filed by the CBI, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma noted that the discharge order was prima facie erroneous. Subsequently, Kejriwal made a request for the recusal of Justice Sharma from hearing the case, raising reasonable apprehensions regarding a fair and unbiased hearing before her. He provided ten reasons for the apprehension, including that, when Justice Sharma dealt with his bail application and his challenge to arrest previously, the order she passed had ‘almost declared him guilty.’ As per judicial tradition, Justice Sharma should have readily recused herself from hearing the case, but she did not, giving a clear hint of what her verdict will be.
The event that brought Arvind Kejriwal into political limelight was the ‘India against Corruption’ movement led by Anna Hazare. In the context of corruption charges against the Congress government in the staging of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and the ‘Nirbhaya’ rape case, Anna Hazare began an indefinite hunger strike in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. Besides Kejriwal, heavyweights like Baba Ramdev, Kiren Bedi, Prashant Bhushan, Shanti Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, N. Santhosh Hegde were in the forefront of the movement. Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev and Kiren Bedi were BJP’s Trojan Horses. Consequently, Anna Hazare strongly opposed Kejriwal forming a political party that could be a threat to BJP’s electoral prospects. The BJP owes much to the movement for its return to power, and so does Kejriwal in becoming Delhi’s Chief Minister twice and a political force in North India, coming to power in Punjab and playing the spoiler for the Congress in Gujarat and Goa.
Since coming to power, the BJP has protected so many of their leaders who were guilty of rape and violence against women. And now the CAG reports that 54, 282.42 crores of central government’s money have disappeared into thin air; no accounts for the expenditure of the sum have been submitted by the Modi’s government. But these have not aroused the conscience of Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev or Kiran Bedi. Anna Hazare reclines merrily in his divancot, enjoying the sight of Hindutva spreading its tendrils by indulging in unbridled corruption. And for an accusation of corruption for which there is not an iota of provable evidence, Kejriwal remained in gaol for 6 months. A sadder experience could be awaiting him. He killed a rat snake (Congress) and wore a cobra (BJP) as garland. Seven of ten Rajya Sabha MPs of Kejriwal’s AAP party have just switched sides and joined the BJP.
Once the FCRA Bill comes into effect, Kejriwal’s fate awaits Christian institutions. Based on fabricated cases of misuse, Christian and Muslim institutions will be taken over by the government. Even if those who can afford the high cost of litigations approach the courts, the cases will get prolonged endlessly through appeals and postponement of hearings, as is happening in the SNC-Lavalin case in which Kerala’s Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, is accused of corruption. And if at all a just final verdict comes after countless years, the institutions will have been irretrievably saffronised or defunct by then.
In Assam, a Hindu family approached a Christian pastor to pray for the cure of a disease that was tormenting one of its members. That alerted the BJP government there of Christian pastors using miraculous cures as a tool for the conversion of Hindus to Christianity. So, they passed laws aimed at curbing miracle workers who claim supernatural powers, focussing on anti-superstition, black magic, and fraudulent practices that exploit vulnerable people. Four other states have followed suit. It is now heard that the centre is mulling a similar bill that will be applicable to the whole of India. The fact remains that ‘miracle workers’ have appeared as a scourge in all religions, including the Catholic Church. The BJP could use the proposed bill as an anti-conversion tool and put many of our miracle working priests and pastors in gaol for as long as they want. In a way, that is the prize the Church will have to pay for indiscreetly promoting them. In the meanwhile, the Hindu godmen who are guilty of exploiting vulnerable people are roaming free on indefinite paroles after the courts have convicted them on multiple cases of raping women.
Indian democracy is now facing a death threat through the saffronisation of its constitutional institutions. The BJP is misusing central investigating agencies like the ED and the Income Tax Department to hunt down MPs and MLAs of opposition parties, forcing them to switch sides and swell the ranks of the BJP. The courts are being manned with judges who have an RSS leaning. Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan has just raised the concern that “India’s former Chief Justice is with someone (Hindu bigot) accused of hatred.” People who unabashedly act as BJP’s agents are made Election Commissioners. In a shocking development, 65 election duty officers have moved the Supreme Court, saying they themselves are not on the West Bengal SIR list, which unequivocally proves that the hurriedly executed SIR has turned out to be a fraudulent and failed exercise designed for BJP’s political benefit.
And the last but not the least, as part of an all-out effort to make India a Hindu Rashtra where the constitution will be replaced by Manusmriti, the BJP introduced the failed Delimitation Bill that would have raised the number of Lok Sabha MPs from the present 545 to 85O, paving the way for It to rule continuously for at least half a century with the help of the vast following it has in the Hindi heartland. Will history record that the Modi-Shah bench sentenced Indian democracy to death by hanging and Gyanesh Kumar played the role of the hangman?
