United Nations: The spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed a strong "hope" that in India, as well as in any country undergoing elections, the political and civil rights of people are "protected", ensuring that everyone can vote in an environment that is free and fair.
The spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, made these remarks on Thursday while responding to a question about the "political unrest" in India ahead of the upcoming national elections, following the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the freezing of the opposition Congress Party's bank accounts.
'Very much hope that in India...': UN
“What we very much hope that in India, as in any country that is having elections, that everyone's rights are protected, including political and civil rights, and everyone is able to vote in an atmosphere that is free and fair,” Dujarric said at the daily press briefing Thursday.
The response from the United Nations comes a day after the US also reacted to a similar question regarding Kejriwal’s arrest and the freezing of the Congress party’s bank accounts.
What did the US say?
On the US diplomat being summoned in Delhi, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller, said, "We continue to follow these actions closely, including the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind 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."
However, he also denied talking about any private diplomatic conversations, and said, "What we have said publicly is what I just said from here, that we encourage fair, transparent, and timely legal processes. We don't think anyone should object to that."
India hits back at US
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officials summoned Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gloria Berbena to their office in South Block in the Indian capital. The meeting lasted for more than 30 minutes.
On Thursday, India said the US State Department's recent remarks on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are "unwarranted" and asserted the country is "proud of its independent and robust democratic institutions" and committed to protect them from any form of undue external influences.
Any "external imputation" on India's electoral and legal processes is "completely unacceptable", MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in New Delhi during his weekly press briefing.
In India, legal processes are driven "only by the rule of law", Jaiswal said on Thursday.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said in a statement that India took strong objection to the remarks of the Spokesperson of the US State Department about certain legal proceedings in India.
“India’s legal processes are based on an independent judiciary which is committed to objective and timely outcomes. Casting aspersions on that is unwarranted,” the MEA had said.
Why was Kejriwal arrested?
Earlier on March 22, the ED arrested Kejriwal hours after the high court refused to grant him protection from coercive action by the anti-money laundering probe agency. Later the trial court had remanded Kejriwal to the ED's custody till March 28 "for his detailed and sustained interrogation". The case pertains to the alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 which was later scrapped.
Why Congress party's bank accounts freezed?
The Congress party's bank accounts were partially frozen due to an income tax dispute. Allegedly, the party failed to file a tax return for some cash donations, resulting in the government revoking the tax exemption available to political parties for those funds. The Congress party claims this action is politically motivated to hinder them before the upcoming elections, while the ruling BJP maintains that it is merely enforcing tax regulations.
(With PTI inputs)
