Kejriwal office raid: AAP leaders attack Modi, Centre; terms it darkest day in Indian democracy

New Delhi: A furious AAP on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government after the CBI raid at the office of Chief Secretary of the Delhi government, terming it the "darkest" day and "undeclared emergency" in the history of Indian democracy.

AAP leaders accused the NDA government of crushing civil liberties and democratic rights and said Modi was sending out a message to officials working with the Chief Minister that they will be targeted.

"This is the darkest day of Indian democracy but bewildered of Delhi n Bihar defeat, @narendramodi can do anything (sic)," party MLA Somnath Bharti tweeted.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia alleged that the Centre was controlling the CBI and the raid at Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar's office was meant to send a warning message to officials working with Kejriwal honestly.

"If Modi ji wants to send a message to officials that if they work along with Kejriwal honestly, they will be targeted then it's a very dangerous message. This will have an opposite effect," he warned. Sisodia said action should be taken against guilty, but the same cannot be made an excuse to harass officials.

"If it is a matter of corruption, you raid office, residence of Kejriwal. Nobody has issues. But if you seal CM office under a pretext, stop people from coming to office, go through files, this shows you are making an excuse," he said.

Another party leader Ashish Khaitan termed the CBI action as "undeclared emergency" by the Modi Government, which, he alleged, wanted to turn the country into a "police state".

"What we are witnessing today is an undeclared state of emergency, something which we all have been maintaining for too long that this Modi government wants to turn our country into a police state where civil liberties, democratic rights are all being crushed," Khaitan said.

It is the defeat in Delhi and Bihar assembly elections that has made the ruling BJP at the Centre to resort to "worst kind of political vendetta," he alleged.

Kejriwal claimed the CBI has raided his office in central Delhi and launched a no holds barred attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he was resorting to "cowardice".

The Chief Minister, who is involved in a prolonged tussle with the Centre, accused the Modi government of resorting to vendetta politics and came down heavily on the agency for the raids at Players Building.