India summons US diplomat over state department remarks on Kejriwal's arrest

Reports had it that a US state department official had said that Washington 'encouraged a fair, transparent and timely legal process for chief minister Kejriwal'.

New Delhi: A day after President Joe Biden’s administration not-so-subtly nudged New Delhi to ensure a fair legal process for the incarcerated Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, the government summoned Washington DC’s deputy envoy to India and strongly objected to the statement made by US State Department spokesperson.

Gloria Berbena, the acting Deputy Chief of Mission of the American Embassy in New Delhi, was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) headquarters, where senior officials conveyed to her the ‘strong objection’ of the Government of India over the remark of the US State Department spokesperson on the recent arrest of the chief minister of Delhi by the Enforcement Directorate.

“We encourage a fair, transparent, and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal,” a spokesperson of the US State Department told Reuters on Tuesday in response to a query from the news agency about the case.

Earlier, a comment by Sebastian Fischer, the spokesperson of the federal foreign office of Germany, on the arrest of the AAP leader and the Delhi chief minister had also triggered sharp protests from India.

“We assume and expect that the standards relating to the independence of the judiciary and basic democratic principles will also be applied in this case,” Fischer had said, adding that the Delhi Chief Minister had entitled to a fair and impartial trial.

Berlin’s deputy envoy to New Delhi, Georg Enzweiler, had also been summoned to the MEA headquarters, where senior officials had conveyed to him that the remarks were interfering in our judicial process and undermining the independence of our judiciary."

Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 in connection with a money-laundering case related to the excise policy of the government of Delhi.

“We take strong objection to the remarks of the spokesperson of the US State Department about certain legal proceedings in India,” the MEA stated on Wednesday, adding, “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 senior diplomats conveyed to the deputy envoy of Washington DC to New Delhi that India’s legal processes were based on an independent judiciary committed to objective and timely outcomes. “Casting aspersions on that (India’s judicial process) is unwarranted,” the MEA stated in its statement.