The Enforcement Directorate has scripted a new chapter in the history of Indian politics. It arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in excise policy case.

Late in the evening, a 12-member ED team descended on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s official residence with a search warrant in the excise policy case. The Chief Minister  was subsequently  taken in custody  hours after  Delhi High Court refused to grant him bail against impending arrest in the excise policy case.

Mr Kejriwal, the first Chief Minister belonging to new entrant to Indian political scene, Aam Aadmi Party,  has  thus earned the distinction of becoming the first sitting chief minister to be arrested in the history of Independent India. The AAP party, including its leadership, has rallied around its supremo  and announced that  he would continue to hold the post. 

There have been protests against his arrested. Some political parties, too, have taken exception to the manner in which Arvind Kejriwal has been taken in custody hours after the Delhi High Court refused to provide any relief in the case.

Meanwhile, AAP has maintained that Arvind Kejriwal would not step down as Chief Minister after his arrest. He would continue to function from the prison. A special petition has bee preferred before a Special Bench of the Supreme Court seeking enlargement of the arrested Chief Minister. Arvind Kejriwal is the fifth AAP leader to be arrested in excise policy case. All four arrested before him have not been granted bails.

Leaders of various parties, including Congress, have assailed the NDA government   for “arresting a sitting Chief Minister in a tearing hurry”.

Developments relating to arrests of Chief Ministers of  various non-BJP governments has set an animated debate in motion. Are these arrests outcome of politics of vendetta? Or does the nation need to do a thorough introspection over the present system of governance that smacks of both vendetta politics and vilification? How the system can be made transparent and free from corruption to give people good governance? These questions and many more need answers.

The Delhi Chief Minister had challenged the ED summons to him for questioning over alleged money transactions in the excise policy case. He repeatedly refused to appear before the ED, calling the summons by the central agency illegal.

Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest comes within a couple of months of the arrest of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha  leader Hemant Soren  in a money laundering case. Hemant Soren resigned as Chief Minister on the eve of his arrest.

Arvind Kejriwal has thus become the second non-BJP Chief Minister to land in the ED net in last three months.

Soon after Hemant Soren decided to quit before he was taken in custody by the ED team, his party’s minister Champai Soren  took over as the new Chief Minister of Jharkhand.

The Jharkhand drama took place when several national women hockey teams were in Ranchi to participate in the Olympic Hockey Qualifier Tournament. Hemant Soren supporters had accompanied him to the venue of the Olympic Qualifier on the final day. Very next day the ED team questioned him.

Besides Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren, there is a long list of (former) Chief Ministers in the country who have been behind the bars in corruption cases. They  include Bihar’s Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tamil Nadu’s J Jayalalithaa – two very powerful leaders in their respective states. Others are Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh), Om Prakash Chautala (Haryana), and Madhu Koda (Jharkhand).

Lalu Prasad Yadav, patriarch of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, was convicted in the fodder scam in 2013 along with former chief minister Jagannath Mishra. He and his son Tejaswi Yadav are currently being probed in a land-for-jobs case.

Mr Yadav was the Chief Minister of Bihar twice between 1990 and 1997.

Jayalalithaa, who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu several times between 1991 and 2016, was arrested in a corruption case in 1996. She was convicted and jailed in 2014.

Mr Chautala was convicted in a teachers’ recruitment case in 2013 and was sentenced to 10 years in jail. He was awarded another four years in prison in a disproportionate assets case in 2022. He served as the Chief Minister of Haryana multiple times between 1989 and 2005.

Mr Naidu was arrested last year in connection with an alleged scam of 317 crore in the Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation during his tenure. He was the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh between 2014 and 2019.

Madhu Koda, who served as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand between 2006 and 2008, was arrested in 2009 in a mining scam.

Interestingly, the arrest of a sitting Chief Minister marks a new beginning. Under the Indian law, only the President and state governors enjoy  immunity from civil and criminal proceedings as long they hold their office, and are given protection from arrest.

A sitting Chief Minister, however,  enjoys no such protection and can be arrested if an investigating agency has enough reason to take such action. The AAP leaders continue to describe the arrests as a bigger game of political vendetta.

(Prabhjot Singh is a veteran journalist with over three decades of experience of 14 years with Reuters News and 30 years with The Tribune Group, covering a wide spectrum of subjects and stories. He has covered Punjab and Sikh affairs for more than three decades besides covering seven Olympics and several major sporting events and hosting TV shows.)