What two arrests reveal about our democracy
New Indian ExpressThe arrest of the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Hemant Soren, was unprecedented. But the formal arrest took place within the precincts of the Raj Bhawan, where Soren had gone to hand over his resignation claiming that his party still enjoyed the confidence of the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly. Arvind Kejriwal, however, was arrested while he was chief minister and continues to be so despite the special court remanding him to the ED’s custody for six days. Often in the past, this government has used both the Central Bureau of Investigation and the ED for either prosecuting or threatening prosecution to trigger defections in order to destabilise elected governments in opposition-ruled states. We may have seen isolated instances prior to 2014 of a similar alignment of purpose with the CBI, but never before in such an insidious fashion.