Achi news desk-
Last Updated: March 28, 2024, 4:42 PM IST
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal during a press conference on Thursday. (Photo: File News18)
India rejects the US State Department’s comments, asserting a commitment to the rule of law. Mutual respect is encouraged in international relations
Underlining that legal processes in the country are driven solely by the rule of law, India on Thursday rejected the latest comments made by the US State Department as “completely unacceptable” and added that fellow democracies should respect the sovereignty and other internal matters.
“The recent comments from the State Department are unnecessary. Any such insinuation on our electoral and legal process is completely unacceptable. In India, legal processes are driven only by the rule of law. Anyone who shares a similar ethos, especially fellow democracies, should have no difficulty in appreciating this fact,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a press conference on Thursday. .
“India is proud of its robust and democratic institutions. We are committed to protecting them from any form of undue external influence. Respect and mutual understanding are the basis of international relations, and states are expected to respect sovereignty and other internal matters,” Jaiswal said in response to a question during the presser.
The United States of America has stuck to its comments on Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest, despite India calling a senior US diplomat to lodge a protest. The country has also now commented on the freezing of the Congress bank accounts, which will “make it challenging for the party to campaign effectively in the upcoming elections”.
Washington stressed on Wednesday that it encourages fair, transparent, timely legal processes and “we don’t think anyone should oppose that”. “We continue to follow these developments closely, including the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal,” said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Miller was responding to a question during a State Department briefing on India calling Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gloria Berbena in New Delhi earlier in the day as well as on freezing the Congress party’s bank accounts.
“We are also aware of the claims of the Congress party that tax authorities have frozen some of their bank accounts in a manner that will make it challenging to campaign effectively in the upcoming elections. And we encourage fair, transparent and timely legal processes for all of these matters. “Regarding your first question, I’m not going to talk about any private diplomatic conversations, but of course, what we’ve said publicly is what I’ve just said from here, that we encourages fair, transparent and timely legal processes. We don’t think anyone should object to that. I would make the same clear in private,” Miller said.
Miller’s comments came a day after Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gloria Berbena in her South Block office in Delhi lodged a strong protest against the comments of a US State Department official on Kejriwal’s arrest. The meeting lasted for more than 30 minutes. Earlier, the Indian government strongly objected to the US State Department spokesperson’s comments on some legal cases in India.
“In diplomacy, states are expected to respect sovereignty and other internal matters. This responsibility is even more so in the case of joint democracies. It could otherwise end up setting unhealthy precedents,” the MEA said. “India’s legal processes are based on an independent judiciary committed to objective and timely results. Casting aspirations on that is unnecessary,” the MEA said.
The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Kejriwal in a money laundering case linked to the customs policy ‘scam’. The case relates to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi government’s customs policy for 2021-22 which was later scrapped.
