Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate has legal as well as political implications. There is, of course, the question of establishing the charges against the Delhi chief minister. The law must take its own course in this matter. What would also exercise legal and public opinion is the issue concerning a chief minister’s right to run a government from jail, an unprecedented situation for which there seems to be no ready answers even in constitutional or statutory law. That Mr Kejriwal decided to withdraw his plea for bail and for the quashing of the first information report from the Supreme Court suggests that he is unwilling to pass on the crown without a fight.

But what would be of far greater interest is the political game pivoted on Mr Kejriwal’s arrest. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s ploy seems to be two-fold. In the short term, it wants to disrupt the Aam Aadmi Party’s Lok Sabha campaign, especially in Delhi where the AAP’s pact with the Congress could queer the BJP’s pitch. If Mr Kejriwal’s absence from the electoral turf is prolonged, it might further deplete the Opposition’s ranks of a leader who can counter the BJP’s poll rhetoric by citing his alternative model of welfare. After all, there is much interest in the AAP’s success with the localised, mohalla-based approach to welfare and community upliftment, something that helped the party pocket Punjab. In the long run, the BJP hopes to demoralise its rival’s cadre and supporters in the northern belt and Punjab by bogging down Mr Kejriwal and the AAP’s senior leadership in legal cases. But the Opposition must look at the adversity of Mr Kejriwal’s arrest as an opportunity. It could give the beleaguered, divided force the glue it needs and plunge into battle with the weaponisation of investigative agencies by the Narendra Modi government being a potent weapon in INDIA’s arsenal. There has been considerable domestic noise about the Opposition being disproportionately targeted by Central agencies: over 90% of the ED’s cases have been against Opposition leaders. Probes mysteriously stop as soon as the embattled leaders join the BJP. Now, rogue investigative agencies have attracted international attention, if the remarks of the spokesperson of the German foreign ministry on Mr Kejriwal’s arrest are any indication. That is not the kind of limelight Mr Modi enjoys.