After US, Germany, now UN reacts to Delhi CM Kejriwal’s arrest: ‘Hope everyone’s rights are protected’

The US, despite strong objection from India and its diplomat being summoned, has said 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. 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,” the US State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said.

On Friday, Sebastian Fischer, spokesperson for Germany’s foreign office, had said: “We assume and expect that the standards relating to independence of judiciary and basic democratic principles will also be applied in this case.”

The External Affairs Ministry has strongly objected to comments from both the countries, reiterating that it was an internal matter. The MEA had also 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.

This is the second 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”.

On the other hand, this is the third face-off between the German Foreign Ministry and the MEA in the last three years over the judicial actions of Indian opposition leaders and civil society.