Unacceptable: MEA rebuts US re-flagging comments on Kejriwal, Congress, due process

MEA spokesperson: US State Dept remarks unwarranted... in India, legal processes are driven only by the rule of law

A DAY after Washington reiterated its comments on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and flagged the need for due process in that and the case related to Congress’s bank accounts, New Delhi said Thursday that these remarks by the US State Department are “unwarranted” and “unacceptable”.

Responding to questions at the weekly briefing, the Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said: “As you are aware, yesterday, 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.”

“In India, legal processes are driven only by the rule of law,” he said. “Anyone who has similar ethos, especially fellow democracies, should have no difficulty in appreciating this fact.”

He added: “India is proud of its independent and robust democratic institutions. We are 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.”

Late Wednesday evening, hours after India had summoned a senior US diplomat and objected to the State Department’s remarks on Kejriwal’s arrest, the US had reiterated that it “follows these actions closely” and “encourages fair, transparent, timely legal processes”.

“We continue to follow these actions closely, including the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal,” said US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. “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 was responding to a question on India summoning the US diplomat over comments on Kejriwal's arrest, and the freezing of the Congress's bank accounts and Amnesty International’s statement that the crackdown on the Opposition. “With respect to your first question (summoning of a diplomat), 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,” he said.

On Wednesday, the MEA had summoned senior US diplomat Gloria Berbena, who heads the public affairs section at the US Embassy, days after summoning the German deputy chief of mission, Georg Enzweiler, to lodge a strong protest against the German Foreign Ministry's remarks on Kejriwal’s arrest.

On Tuesday, Reuters had reported that the US State Department spokesperson, responding to an emailed query, said: “We encourage a fair, transparent and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal.”

This is the third time in the last two weeks that India hit back at the US. Responding to criticism from Washington on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Delhi had said on March 15 that it was an “internal matter”. Saying that the CAA “supports human rights”, the MEA spokesperson had said: “As regards the US State Department’s statement on the implementation of CAA, we are of the view that it is misplaced, misinformed and unwarranted.”