New Delhi: For the second consecutive day, India has reacted against the latest statements by the US state department on the move to freeze the Congress’s bank accounts and the arrest of the Delhi chief minister as “completely unacceptable”.
India had on Wednesday (March 27) summoned a senior US diplomat in the embassy after the state department called for “fair, transparent and timely” legal processes following the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.
India “strongly” protested the remarks, which were emailed to a news agency in response to a question on Kejriwal’s arrest.
After India summoned the US diplomat, the US state department reiterated its concerns over Kejriwal’s arrest and highlighted the freezing of accounts of the Congress – which the principal opposition party in the country – at a public media briefing in Washington, D.C.
During the briefing, US state department spokesperson Mathew Miller said Washington was closely following the action against Kejriwal.
“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,” he said.
Asked for a reaction to the US diplomat’s summoning, Miller added: “I’m not going to talk about any private diplomatic conversations. But of course what we have said publicly is what I just said from here, 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.”
Following the reiteration of its statements by the US, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that “India has lodged its strong objection and protest with the senior official from the US embassy with regard to the comments made by the US state department”.
“The recent remarks by the state department are unwarranted. Any such external imputation on our electoral and legal processes is completely unacceptable,” he added.
Claiming that India’s “legal processes are driven only by the rule of law”, Jaiswal said: “Anyone who has similar ethos, especially fellow democracies, should have no difficulty in appreciating this fact”.
Stating that India was “proud” of its “independent” institutions, he noted that India was “committed to protect them from any form of undue external influences”.
“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,” he said.
Germany had expressed hope last week that “standards regarding the independence of the judiciary and basic democratic principles” would apply to Kejriwal’s arrest.
The following day, the German deputy chief of mission was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs.
