TMC MP arrest: Kejriwal calls it vendetta, Cong questions timing

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the arrest of a TMC parliamentarian by CBI, deploring the action as “vendetta politics”.

Kejriwal, a bitter critic of Modi, alleged that the arrest of Sudip Bandopadhyay had its roots in TMC’s opposition to the invalidation of 1,000 and 500 rupee notes.

The Aam Aadmi Party led by Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee-headed TMC have been quite vocal against the November 8 move and the two leaders had also staged joint protests on the issue.

“This is vendetta politics of Modi ji. His msg is - Agar kisi ne notbandi ke khilaaf bola to chhodenge nahi. Really deplorable,” the AAP leader tweeted.

Echoing Trinamool Congress, Congress on Wednesday said the arrests of TMC leaders were aimed at breaking the opposition unity on the issue of demonetisation and raised concern about the “timing” of the CBI actions.

“We are questioning the timing of the arrests. For more than a year the CBI was silent, but all of a sudden it has become active when the opposition is getting united on the issue of demonetisation. This is an attempt to break the unity of the opposition on the issue of demonetisation,” Congress general secretary C P Joshi told reporters here.

The “timing of the arrests” has raised a question mark over the impartiality of the probe, he remarked.

Congress had on Tuesday alleged TMC Parliamentary Party leader in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhyay’s arrest by the CBI was “vendetta unleashed by PM Modi on his detractors” and wondered if it was in reaction to the “opposition unity”.

The state Congress leadership, under the instruction of party high command, took a U-turn and said presently demonetisation was a much bigger issue.