The United States of America has stuck to its remarks on Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest, despite India summoning a senior US diplomat to lodge a protest. The country has also now commented on freezing of bank accounts of the Congress, which will “make it challenging for the party to effectively campaign in the upcoming elections”.

“We continue to follow these actions closely, including the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal,” US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Miller was responding to a question during the State Department briefing over India summoning Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gloria Berbena in New Delhi earlier in the day as well as on freezing of Congress party’s bank accounts.

“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.

“With respect to your first question, 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. We’ll make the same thing clear privately,” Miller said.

Ministry of External Affairs officials summoned the Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gloria Berbena at its office in South Block in Delhi and lodged a strong protest against a US State Department official’s remarks on Kejriwal’s arrest. The meeting lasted for more than 30 minutes.

Reports suggested that a US State Department official had said that Washington “encouraged a fair, transparent and timely legal process for chief minister Kejriwal”.

The case pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 which was later scrapped.

“In diplomacy, states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others. This responsibility is even more so in the case of fellow democracies. It could otherwise end up setting unhealthy precedents,” the ministry said.

Germany Exudes Confidence in India Legal System

“The Indian constitution – and I can say this from my own perspective as I was posted in India myself – guarantees fundamental human values and freedoms. And we share these democratic values with India as an important partner in Asia,” the German Foreign Ministry said.

Source: ANI