THE Delhi state committee of the CPI(M), in a statement issued on July 27, condemned the targeting of MLAs belonging to the AAP by the Modi government and its police. Over the past few days, cases have been filed against AAP legislators almost on a daily basis. Some of them are in prison and are being refused bail. Even worse is the filing of a police patently false case against Swati Maliwal, chairperson of the Delhi State Women’s Commission. True to its authoritarian nature, the Modi government is hell-bent on undermining the elected Delhi state government. The Lt. Governor and police who are directly responsible to the central government are being used as pliant tools to achieve the political ends of the BJP. The above situation highlights the need to make Delhi a full-fledged state with the state government being in charge of both police and land. The CPI(M) does not hold any brief for wrongs of this or that AAP legislator. However we cannot accept the motivated and wholesale targeting of elected representatives and demand that the Modi government put an immediate end to it. At the same time the AAP’s ploy of blaming the central government for each of its shortcomings must also stop, the statement said.