UN Statement on Arvind Kejriwal’s Arrest: A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he “hopes” that in India and any other country where elections are being held, people’s “political and civil rights” will be protected and everyone will be able to vote in a “free and fair” environment. UN Secretary-General’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric made these comments on Thursday in response to a question on the political situation ahead of the upcoming national election in India in the wake of the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the ban on transactions from the bank accounts of opposition party Congress.
Dujarric said in a regular press conference on Thursday, “We have great hope that in India and any other country where elections are going to be held, everyone’s rights will be protected, including political and civil rights and everyone will be able to vote in a free and fair environment.”
A day before this response of the United Nations, America had also responded to a similar question about Kejriwal’s arrest and ban on transactions from the bank accounts of the Congress Party.
On Wednesday, hours after India summoned a senior US diplomat to protest some of his comments on Kejriwal’s arrest, Washington reiterated that it encourages fair, transparent and timely legal processes. “I’m not going to talk about any private diplomatic conversations, but certainly, what we have said publicly is what I have said from here that we encourage fair, transparent, timely legal processes. We don’t think anybody should object to that. That’s what we will make clear privately,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller had said.
In New Delhi, Foreign Ministry officials had summoned US Embassy Acting Deputy Chief Gloria Barbena, the meeting lasted more than 30 minutes. Terming the US State Department’s comment on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as ‘inappropriate’, India on Thursday said that it is proud of its independent and strong democratic institutions and is committed to protecting them from any kind of unnecessary external influence. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Kejriwal in the money laundering case related to the excise policy ‘scam’.
