Shiv Sena accuses PM Modi of jailing Opposition leaders ahead of elections

The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Saturday, 23 March, alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was putting the Opposition leaders in the country into jails as he was scared of facing the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The party targeted the prime minister in an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana', in the wake of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The criticism also comes days after Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut likened Modi to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

The party claimed that the arrest of Kejriwal was not surprising as a dictator resorts to such acts.

In the editorial, the party also likened Modi to Mahabharata character Kansa.

"Kansa jailed all those he was scared of, yet Lord Krishna was born who assassinated him in the end," it said.

"Modi is scared. This is why he is jailing opposition leaders and facing the polls," the party said.

Kansa, the tyrant ruler of Mathura in the Mahabharata, was the maternal uncle of Lord Krishna. He imprisoned the parents of Lord Krishna, who later killed him.

"Aurangzeb would make opponents his vassals or eliminate them. The same Aurangzebi tendency can be seen in the central government across the country," the editorial added.

The policy of existing rulers that there should be no voice of the Opposition is detrimental, it said.

In China and Russia, Opposition leaders are either killed or they disappear, but in India they are implicated in false cases and sent to jail for months, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.

Since 2014, 95 per cent of the cases by the central agencies are against opposition leaders, it said, and alleged that the BJP was misusing the central agencies to finish its opposition and fill its coffers.

The ED arrested Kejriwal in an excise policy-linked money laundering case on Thursday night. The arrest, the first of a sitting chief minister, came hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant protection to the AAP national convenor from any coercive action by the agency.

The 55-year-old leader's arrest came amid a campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.