“We’ve transitioned from being democracy to autocracy”

In an attempt to echo the Opposition’s voice in unison, nine leaders of eight political parties on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the arrest of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the excise policy case, and alleged that the “misuse” of the central agencies suggests that the country has “transitioned from being a democracy to an autocracy”. The leaders alleged that the timings of the lodging of cases or arrests of the Opposition leaders “coincided with elections which makes it clear that the action taken was “politically motivated”. Among the Opposition leaders who were the signatories of the letter included BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao, JKNC chief Farooq Abdullah, AITC chief Mamata Banerjee, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. However, there were no representations from Congress, JDS, JD (U), and CPI (M) in the letter. “We hope you would agree that India is still a democratic country. The blatant misuse of central agencies against the members of the opposition appears to suggest that we have transitioned from being a democracy to an autocracy,” the leaders wrote.