NEW DELHI: India’s External Affairs Ministry on Wednesday strongly objected to the US State Department’s remarks on the arrest of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
“In diplomacy, states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others. This responsibility is even more so in case of fellow democracies. It could otherwise end up setting unhealthy precedents,” the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
“India’s legal processes are based on an independent judiciary which is committed to objective and timely outcomes. Casting aspersions on that is unwarranted,” it added.
Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), India’s financial crime investigation agency, in connection with Delhi’s controversial excise policy.
The US State Department on Monday said it is monitoring reports of Kejriwal’s arrest to ensure a “fair, transparent and timely legal process”.
US acting deputy chief of mission Gloria Berbena in New Delhi was summoned to the ministry, according to Indian media reports.
Asked about India’s summoning of the US diplomat, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller reiterated the US position in a press briefing on Wednesday.
“I’m not going to talk about any private diplomatic conversations. But of course what we have said publicly is… that we encourage fair, transparent, timely legal processes.
“We don’t think anyone should object to that, and we’ll make the same thing clear privately,” he said.
Along with the Kejriwal case, Miller also responded to a question about the freezing of the main India opposition Congress party’s bank accounts over an old income tax case.
“We are also aware of the Congress Party’s allegations that tax authorities have frozen some of their bank accounts in a manner that will make it challenging to effectively campaign in the upcoming elections, and we encourage fair, transparent, and timely legal processes for each of these issues,” Miller said.
India’s opposition parties allege the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is clamping down on them before the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Foreign criticism has perturbed the Indian government.
India on Saturday summoned the German deputy chief of mission in New Delhi to convey its protest over the German Foreign Office’s comments on the Kejriwal issue.
It described the German remarks as “interfering in our judicial process and undermining the independence of our judiciary.” – BERNAMA
