The spotlight's on federal agencies

The judgment in the Delhi excise policy case dents the reputation of CBI and strengthens the perception that federal agencies are targeting opposition parties

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If politics in India has become increasingly polarised, a key wedge has been the burgeoning prosecution of opposition politicians by federal agencies on allegations of corruption.

In the long string of such cases, none was as high-profile as the Delhi excise policy case that led to the incarceration of virtually the entire frontline leadership of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), including the unprecedented jailing of then sitting chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. His deputy Manish Sisodia spent more than a year in prison. The case created a miasma of corruption around a party that built its reputation on probity, hamstrung governance in the national Capital amid a hailstorm of raids and political rows, and was arguably one of the biggest contributors to the AAP's loss in the assembly elections last year.