Like Taliban & al-Qaeda..": Raut on ED-CBI raids against oppn

MUMBAI: A day after nine political party leaders wrote a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging "blatant misuse" of central agencies against the opposition, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut likening raids against them by probe bodies with those by the al-Qaeda and Taliban "who use weapons to attack their opponents."

"The way people like the Taliban and the al-Qaeda take up weapons in their hands to eliminate their opponents, in the same way, this government is using weapons like ED-CBI to eliminate its opponents," Raut told reporters here.

Raut alleged that the manner they [the central government] us "terrorizing" its opponents by using ED-CBI raids against them is "more than fascism and not democratic."

"That's why yesterday, the nine prominent leaders of main opposition parties wrote a letter to PM Modi and put this matter in front of him," Raut said.

The Shiv Sena leader however said that that the letter was not needed since the PM Modi was already aware of all this.

"This [the raids] are happening on his [PM Modi's] orders," Raut alleged.

Earlier on Sunday, nine leaders of eight political parties wrote to PM 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.