New Delhi: The US has called for a “fair” and “transparent” legal process to follow the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Comments by the US Department of State come days after Germany weighed in on the issue, eliciting a sharp reaction from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
According to Reuters, a spokesperson for the US Department of State told the publication in an email response Monday, “We encourage a fair, transparent, and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal.”
Without responding to a question on India’s protest against the German foreign ministry last week calling for an impartial trial for the opposition leader, the state department spokesperson merely directed questions to the German foreign ministry for comments.
Last Friday, Sebastian Fischer, a spokesperson for the German federal foreign ministry, during a government press conference said, “We assume and expect that the standards relating to independence of judiciary and basic democratic principles will also be applied in this case.”
New Delhi summoned the deputy chief of mission of the German embassy in India Georg Enzweiler Saturday and “conveyed” strong protest against Fischer’s comments.
“We see such remarks as interfering in our judicial process and undermining the independence of our judiciary. India is a vibrant and robust democracy with rule of law. As in all legal cases in the country, and elsewhere in the democratic world, law will take its own course in the instant matter. Biassed assumptions made on this account are most unwarranted,” said the MEA in its statement.
Kejriwal was arrested last Thursday by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a case regarding the now-withdrawn excise policy in New Delhi. The ED alleged that the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) received Rs 100 crore in kickbacks, which was used to fund its election campaigns in the states of Gujarat and Punjab.
On Friday, Kejriwal was remanded to six days in custody with the ED till 28 March, by special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge Kaveri Baweja.
Both the US and Germany are among India’s largest trading partners.
Trade between India and the US stood at $97.33 billion between April 2023 and January 2024, according to the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry – which is the second largest after China.
Germany is India’s largest trading partner within the European Union and the eleventh largest bilateral trading partner. Trade between India and Germany stood at $21.65 billion between April 2023 and January 2024, according to the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Under the Biden administration, the US has increasingly looked at India as a strategic partner with a view towards China.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first “official state visit” to the US last June. Biden later travelled to India for the G20 leaders’ summit in September 2023, highlighting the growing importance of India for the administration in Washington D.C.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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