New Delhi: India has once again hit out at the US after the latter not only reiterated its concerns over the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal but also said it was aware of the Congress party’s allegations that tax authorities have frozen some of their bank accounts ahead of the general elections.
Calling the US State Department’s remarks on these issues “unwarranted” and “unacceptable”, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India is proud of its democratic institutions and will protect them from any “undue” external influences.
“The recent remarks by the State Department are unwarranted. Any such external imputation on our electoral and legal processes is completely unacceptable. In India, legal processes are driven only by the rule of law. Anyone who has similar ethos, especially fellow democracies, should have no difficulty in appreciating this fact,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a weekly press briefing Thursday.
He added: “Mutual respect and understanding form the foundation of international relations and states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others.”
Earlier in the day, US State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller said at a press briefing that Washington is closely monitoring Kejriwal’s arrest and the Congress’s allegations that some of their bank accounts have been frozen in an apparent bid to hamper their poll campaigns. This was the second time the US commented on Kejriwal’s arrest.
“We encourage fair, transparent, and timely legal processes for each of these issues,” the US department had said.
A day prior, India had summoned a senior American diplomat in New Delhi and issued a strongly-worded demarche against the US State Department’s earlier remarks on Kejriwal’s arrest in a money-laundering case. At the time, India warned countries against “casting aspersions” on its legal processes, calling them unwarranted.
In response to a query over the phone, the MEA spokesperson rejected speculation that US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti was summoned Thursday, after the US State Department’s remarks.
Earlier this week, the MEA had summoned a senior diplomat from the German embassy after the country’s foreign ministry in Berlin said it had taken note of Kejriwal’s arrest.
Kejriwal was arrested on 21 March by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money-laundering case linked to the now-scrapped liquor policy of 2021-22. He has been accused of being the “kingpin and key conspirator” of the alleged scam.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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