The Congress on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot win the parliamentary elections through fair means and so the Centre was resorting to
coercive measures such as freezing accounts of the main Opposition parties and harassing political rivals through central agencies.

Holding media conferences in several state capitals to explain the enormity of decisions like the freezing of accounts, senior Congress leaders linked the arrest of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to his joining the Opposition group INDIA. They insisted that both Kejriwal and Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren would not have been targeted had they not joined hands with the Congress to bolster the oppositional challenge to Narendra Modi.

Addressing a media conference in Bhopal, Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh said: “Both Shahenshah and Shah are strangling the mother of democracy. While the BJP has collected huge amounts through extortion and deal-making, the Congress cannot use even the money collected through crowdfunding because all our accounts are frozen. Two sitting chief ministers — Kejriwal and Soren — have been sent to jail. Their only fault is that they are in alliance with the Congress.”

Party general secretary Randeep Surjewala said in Bangalore: “Eleven Congress accounts in four banks have been frozen. Two Opposition chief ministers have been sent to jail. Many other Opposition leaders have been raided, summoned for questioning or arrested. Parties are split and MLAs are stolen. Governors are creating hurdles in administration and law-making. The Election Commission is captured by overturning the Supreme Court ruling. Isn’t this fascism? Aren’t these signs of dictatorship, Hitler-style?”

Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot said in Jaipur: “What the income tax department has done is a crime — at whose behest is known to everybody. Nothing happens in this government without Modi-Shah’s consent. Congress accounts are frozen and Rs 115 crore has been confiscated, which included money collected by the NSUI and the Youth Congress. Where are we drifting? North Korea? Russia? China? Imagine how the media would have behaved had the Congress government frozen BJP accounts. History will not forgive the media for playing a negative role in the destruction of democracy.”

Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasara, who was present with Gehlot at the media conference, said: “We have witnessed attacks on democracy in different forms since Modi’s arrival. Political parties were pressured not to have an alliance with the Congress. Kejriwal and Soren were arrested because they joined INDIA in defiance.

“Every leader is being forced to surrender. Modi can’t win a normal election — sometimes Pulwama, sometimes note-bandi and sometimes khata-bandi (accounts freeze). This is a naked dance going on in the country. If these are the means to be adopted, Modi should declare himself elected. Why go through this formality?”