Ruling side, Opposition weave new narratives surrounding Kejriwal's arrest

New Delhi: The surround sound fanning out of AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest is unwittingly defining the contours of political narratives weaved by both the Opposition and the ruling BJP in the initial phase of the 2024 General Election.

While the I.N.D.I.A. bloc is seeking to project the action by central agencies against opposition leaders as an attempt to smother democracy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dubbed the renewed attempts at Opposition unity as an effort to "save the corrupt".

In the Opposition lineup, the AAP, which is the newest kid on the block, comes with the least baggage from the past. Over the last year and a half, many AAP leaders have been arrested in the liquor policy case. However, the Opposition is rallying behind Kejriwal based on the premise that allegations of graft may not stick politically against the Delhi CM who has emerged from the anti-corruption movement. 

In the battle of perception, the legacy parties, who have been in power for an extended period, find it difficult to shrug off graft allegations. 

On the contrary, the push-back may give credence to the Opposition’s allegation of misuse of political agencies to deny a level playing field.

This was evident at the I.N.D.I.A rally in Delhi on Sunday when most speakers pinned their arguments around Kejriwal’s incarceration, and juxtaposed it with the fate of leaders who had faced a corruption probe but migrated to the BJP.

Interestingly, after 10 years of BJP rule, it is the Opposition that has to defend its position on graft and corruption.

On the other hand, Modi has sought to build a sustained campaign on corruption as central agencies have gone about probing high-profile cases involving economic offenses.

The dust after the Ramlila Maidan rally had not settled down, Modi kicked off his 2024 campaign in Meerut, girdling the ‘for vs against’ corruption binary and projecting himself as an outsider combating institutionalised graft.

"Modi's mantra is 'Bhrashtachar hatao' and they say 'Bhrashtachari bachao'. This election is between the NDA which is fighting against corruption, and the other group which is fighting to save the corrupt," he said.

A sub-plot to this narrative has emerged with I.N.D.I.A parties projecting the spouses of the arrested leaders for political messaging. In Delhi, if Sunita Kejriwal has become the voice of Arvind Kejriwal, former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren's wife Kalpana Soren has taken up the cudgels for her husband.

On social media and elsewhere, the BJP has tried to test counter-narratives to the inflections in Opposition strategy. A Union minister recently compared Sunita Kejriwal to Bihar’s Rabri Devi, wife of RJD leader Lalu Yadav, who became CM when her husband was arrested in the fodder scam.

As the sun firmly establishes itself in the northern hemisphere and the political heat rises, the war of words to capture the mind space this election season has only just begun.