Tajinder Bagga and Jignesh Mewani: Making sense of bizarre arrests

Kejriwal's image of a middle-class son and brother, will begin to crumble if he is seen as inimical to the perceived interests of the majority. So, Bagga had to be challenged in such a dramatic mode

The tug of war between the police forces of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi over Tajinder Bagga would suggest that Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has shot itself in the foot. Far from it. Even if the arrest was a botched-up effort, it sent a strong signal that whoever tried to malign Kejriwal, would have to pay a price.

It may be useful to compare the arrest of Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mewani by the Assam police and the aborted detention by the Punjab police of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s shrill spokesperson, Tajinder Bagga. Just as Mewani was seen as a